Broken Family
by WDGHK
Summary: The sisters actions have finally caused their parents to divorce. Following custody battles the siblings are split apart and have badly strained their relationship with their only brother Lincoln. But as they try to pull themselves together perhaps this cruel twist of fate will turn out to be an oportunity to bring the remaining family closer together.
1. New Beginning, New Enemies

**So this is my first fanfic, naturally I don't intend to be to overly ambitious with my first dip into this side of the fandom as this will be a relatively short story, originally it was supposed to a one shot, but it shaped up to be longer than I thought it would be so this will be split into like 2 or 3 chapters at most. This is by all accounts an experimental project for me that I made to adress some thoughts and issues I had about the show, and it will be mainly focused on the relationships between the characters. Sorry about any grammar mistakes, English is not my first language.**

" I`m sorry Clyde, but dad`s too busy with work to drive me and I have no other way of getting to our old neighborhood, I can't even scrap up the money for a bus ticket..." a solemn Lincoln talked to his best friend over his cell phone while walking trough a park "...how am I feeling? About as good as you would expect, I`m just trying not think about it...yes they did mess up, it's all because of them!" anger and contempt entered his voice as he tried not to think about his siblings, for the last week Lincoln`s been trying his hardest to try and find any remaining enjoyment out of his last few weeks of summer inspite of recent events, which included keeping his distance from his sisters as much as possible and ever since the last fiasco they had created he`s been far less willing to let them just drag him of to whatever events they wanted to attend.

" Yeah I miss you too buddy, but don't worry school will be starting soon and we'll be able to hang out again. See ya soon." The 10 year old boy sighed trying to find some quiet spot where he could read the latest Ace Savvy issue that he had just bought, but his family would soon leave to watch Lynn`s soccer game, which Lincoln hoped would give him some peace and alone time at home, but when was he ever that lucky?

His cell phone rang, he looked up the caller and saw that it was Luan, Lincoln groaned knowing exactly what she would be asking. He didn't answer and instead just sent a message " _Not going to Lynns game, and that's final_ ". He pushed the phone in his pocket, not caring to hear any attempts to convince him otherwise, at the park he saw various people enjoying themselves, including families with children, those sights only made him feel worse and kept reminding him of how his family had been torn apart. How did this happen? It all went down so suddenly, it still felt like some terrible dream from which he couldn't wake horrible memories were still fresh in his mind.

He thought his family was tighter than any other, that they would pull trough anything, but it seemed that was all just make belief hidding the truth, they were nothing but a dysfunctional mess, a loose canon of a family, and the inevitable outcome of their dysfunctionality finally happened, all because his sisters just couldn't act like normal people and control their...

Suddenly Lincoln got tripped and hit the ground hard, his newly bought comic fell into a mud puddle. Lincoln gasped in shock before hearing laughter behind him " _Excuse you!_ " a voice quiped mockingly, Lincoln turned around to see an older boy, around Lynn`s age, sitting on a bench, he was wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a red, backwards facing cap over his unkempt black hair, and he was busting a gutt over Lincoln`s accident.

Lincoln felt anger boiling up inside of him " Look at what you did!" he snapped "That was a brand new Ace Savvy issue, and you ruined it!" the dark haired kid was unmoved by Lincoln`s outburst, he put his hand on his chest in mock sympathy "Ace Savvy? Why I'm so sorry, I had no idea you were heading to your geek of the month convention. But don't worry freckle face, I`m sure you'll win anyway, given that, like what, 3 other people on this planet read that crap." Lincoln`s face was turning red and he yelled "Shut up or.." "Or what? You gonna beat me up pipsqueak?" the boy joked as he pushed Lincoln back down with ease, before looming over him with a cocky smirk.

"Say? What's the deal with your face?" he observed " The white hair and those buck teeth? Did your mom have an affair with some mutated, albino chipmunk?" he laughed at his own joke while Lincoln was clenching his fists, now feeling absolutely livid, he tried getting up but was pushed back again when the older boy petted him on the head, messing up his hair, "Well it's been nice meeting ya freak show, but I gotta go, can't risk catching your nerd germs." he left Lincoln laughing obnoxiously, Lincoln gritted his teeth unable to think clearly, he had it with people treating him like dirt.

In one swift move he ran at his tormentor and kicked him in the shin, the boy screamed in pain and Lincoln felt satisfaction for a second before he was meet with an enraged face and all prior courage vanished as he realized what he had done.

Lincoln tried to run but was grabbed by the arm and forcefully pulled back, Lincoln quivered as he was faced with the bully " Oh so you wanna play ruff, huh?" he said darkly " No...I`m sorry... I didn't mean to.." Lincoln begged, the bully laughed dryly " Oh but I think you did tough guy! So I won't disappoint ya!", he swung his fist and punched Lincoln in the gutt. Lincoln collapsed and clenched his stomach in pain, "Not so tough now are you?" the boy mocked before kicking Lincoln in his side and then pulling him up.

Holding him by the shirt the boy tossed him into the mud puddle and soon laughed after Lincoln made a big splash "Hope I didn't ruin your dress Snow White!" he shouted before leaving. "What a loser!" Lincoln heard him say before he was finally gone, Lincoln lay there dejectedly for a moment before trying to pick himself up, but slipped and fell back in before letting out a frustrated yell.

...

" _Good to know that the kids in this neighborhood are soooo friendly_." Lincoln joked bitterly as he hurried towards his home to clean himself up, pain shotting trough his bruised body, his dad would be furious after seeing that he had tracked in so much mud. He just hoped that nobody would see him like this..." Hey Linc, where`ve you been?" Lincoln stopped in his tracks , cursing inwardly, he turned to see the last person he needed right now, Lynn was busy practice kicking soccer balls before getting a good look at her brother "Wow, what happened to ya? I thought dad forbade us from playing in the mud?" the 12 year old tomboy asked cheekily, Lincoln looked away, he wasn't about to admit to her that he got beat up, he suffered enough humiliation for one day, "Eh I tripped into a mud puddle..." he said quietly.

" Ah well that's what you get for having two left feet." Lynn joked " Anyways my team I were just finishing practicing here in the park and our big tournament starts in about an hour, so you better wash yourself up, cuz they won't let you in if you look like you walked out of the pig pen." Lincoln was loosing his patience, she still didn't get it trough her thick skull "Lynn I told you that I wasn't going, and that's final!" he yelled.

Lynn was suprised and cocked an eyebrow " And why not?", Lincoln threw his arms up " Because I don't feel like it! What better reason do I need.". His outburst took her by suprise, she knew that Lincoln hadn't been in the best of moods the last week and she honestly couldn't blame him for it, but Lynn, as usual, let her pride control her, so she wasn't going to put up with his attitude.

"Oh really?" she shouted back " So I guess you'd rather read your geek comics in your underpants than watch me whipe the floor with the opposing team?" Lincoln narrowed his eyes " Oh dear, me wanting to get some alone time instead of watching another one of a zillion of your stupid sport events, where are my priorities?" he snarked which quickly triggered Lynn " Don't make fun of me or I'll..." she growled but Lincoln cut her of "Or what? You'll beat me up? By all means do it, I`m used to it by now, it's a lot more fun than being your "playmate"or bore myself with your **stupid** tournaments anyway!"

Lynn was once again suprised, Lincoln wasn't acting like himself, and suprisingly Lynn tried controlling herself for once, maybe it was the fact that their father had lately become a lot more strict when it came to misbehaving or maybe it finally dawned on her to act like an older sibling should, either way she supressed her anger and didn't go for a fight.

" Hey what's your problem Linc? You`ve been in this foul mood and avoiding us the whole week." Lincoln just looked her as if she had just asked the most stupid question possible, which in his mind she did. " What`s my problem!" he was suddenly shouting at the top of his lungs " Maybe it`s the fact that our parents just divorced, that our family has been cut in half, that our home has been destroyed and now we`re stuck in that shoe closet of an apartment and dad has to work overtime every day just so we can get by and we have to share 2 crammed up bedrooms where I have to deal with you as my roommate! All because you girls couldn't act like normal people and had to pull that freaking stunt that caused all of this to begin with! "

" It was an accident alright! We didn't mean for it to happen!" Lynn too was shouting now " And do think you're the only one upset over this? We all have been feeling miserable about this, but we at least are trying to make the best of it instead of sulking around all day and rubbing salt into the wound, we feel bad enough about it as it is. And you didn't exactly try uch to stop us to begin with!" Lincoln looked down feeling ashamed, not from Lynn`s words, as much as the fact that he already thought about his past mistake.

" No I didn't. And I regret that now. I regret all those years of being a doormat and letting you guys walk all over me instead giving you a piece of my mind, same for mom and dad, we let you spoiled and out of control brats run loose and control us and now we payed the price for it. Guess when it comes to fixing your mistakes being late is still better than never."

Lynn was boiling, true to herself being criticized pressed her buttons, deep down she knew that Lincoln was telling the truth, but like any athlete she wouldn`t accept defeat, even in an argument. " Oh yeah we're the spoiled brats and you're the goody two shoes angle who never did anything wrong. Don`t make me laugh."

"No I`m not a perfect angle, but here's the difference. I at least can admit my mistakes and own up to them, and I can actually be a rational and sensible person who can keep himself in check when he needs to, while you girls are just a bunch of chaotic nutjobs with no sense of responsibility and all you ever care about is yourself. You don't see me bullying and pestering my siblings into doing what I want, I constantly put up with your crap because I thought family was there to support each other, but I guess I was wrong. You don't seem to care much at all about anything but your little sports career, as long as that is going well you're family could be falling apart and you wouldn't give a crap!"

Before he knew it Lincoln received a soccer ball to the face, the force of it made him stumble back but he retained his footing. He looked back at his sister who was panting angrily, Lincoln touched his bruised face before wiping of the blood coming from his nose. After observing his blood stained hand he gave Lynn a cold glare "That's what I thought." he said emotionlessly before running of. Still angry Lynn felt conflicted on what to do next, she thought about running after him until her coach called for her, " _He`s not worth it_." Lynn thought angrily before joining her team.

...

Lincoln reached the building where their dingy little apartment was, of course this old building never had an elevator installed meaning Lincoln had to use the stairs until he reached the fifth floor. He entered the living room where he saw the couch, that their poor father had to use as a bed, standing next to a rusty old tv, Lincoln went straight for the bathroom where he threw his dirty clothes into the old washing machine, before taking a long shower.

Once he came out he saw that it was almost dusk, and with little motivation for staying up Lincoln went straight to his small bedroom with a three part bunk bed which he had to share with the Queen of Fartility and the joke of a comedian. Lincoln climbed up to the highest bunk and lied down now just wanting to forget about the world around him entirely and escape to dreamland for a bit, but soon found it difficult to fall just 2 hours later as he was about to doze of he was awaken by the door being loudly opened, "Ah there you are Linky!" a chipper female voice said.

" What do you want Luan!" Lincoln grumbled, still groogy, "Sheesh looks like someone slept on the wrong side of the bunk!" the 13 year old wannabe comedian giggled at her own joke before growing quiet after seeing her brothers unamused look "If you came here to make me watch your dumb "comedy" bit then I might just as well go sleep in the bathtub." said an irritated Lincoln already trying to climb out of his bunk, " Wow there bro, I was just trying to lighten the mood so you wouldn't be so down in the mud!" she winked at her sibling only to get the same unmoved reaction as before, "Yikes tough crowd." Luan whispered to herself. Lincoln turned around in his bunk, trying to ignore his sister and fall asleep.

" But seriously now, Lincoln we were kinda worried about you." Luan spoke up gently, "You? Serious? Yeah right..." Lincoln snarked quietly, " I mean it!" Luan now sounded uncharacteristically upset " You never called to tell us that you made it home safe, plus you`ve been wandering around alone a lot lately in this new neighborhood, and it's not safe to..." Lincoln turned back to face her, his expression was a mixture of confusion and annoyance " Since when were you all about lecturing people about being responsible?", Luan scratched her neck sheepishly " Well dad told me that since I'm now the oldest sibling around here that I...well should learn to be more responsible and set an example to the rest of you..."

Lincoln let out a small nasal laugh " Well congrats Luan, you finally said something funny." Luan looked down, Lincoln didn't believe in her potential to be responsible, and frankly she didn't have much faith in herself either. Lincoln had once again turned his back to her, she sighed " Look I know why you're mad at us, I don't blame you, none of us do, but you can't just shut us out of your life, we`re still your sisters and I...I just want my brother back, the only one who would hang out with me and listen to my jokes, and..." Lincoln gave her no response and she realized that it would be futile to press on, she would have to talk to him tomorrow.

...

" So did you manage to talk to him?" asked his fourth oldest, or currently oldest child, while he was preparing for another night of sleep on the lumpy couch, "Well he did talk to me, it's just that he sounded like he really didn't want to." a dejected Luan answered, "Well it's a start, I know he`ll forgive you girls in time, but right now he`s still upset and we have to give him space for now, if you girls try him to forgive you it will only makes things worse, understod?", "Understod." Luan answered before going of to sleep leaving her father alone.

He was glad that Lynn was staying for a sleepover with her team to celebrate their victory, he knew that she and Lincoln had an argument and given how her temper she was the last person they needed to be present when things got tense. Lynn Sr. didn't want to be mad at his daughter, but he couldn't deny it that it was partially their fault for their current predicament, he and his wife worked hard trying to support their big family but the only thing his daughters really gave him in return was lots of stress and chaos, and ultimately that destroyed his marriage, but he realized that being angry at them wouldn't accomplish anything as by the end of the day he only had himself to blame, he failed to raise them properly and ultimately he deserved what he got, but still he had to and wanted to atone for his mistakes, it was never to late...

 **And as you can see by now this is an AU, set a year before the shows current timeline and here the sisters antics had more realistic and lasting consequences. I mainly did this as a potential set up in case I ever do any more stories in the future and I always liked AU fics that take a shows canon and make a few tweeks to it. And this would also leave me without the obligation to include and focus on some of the characters that I just don't care for, like Luna, Lori, Leni and Clyde. And in case any dimwit acuses me of it, let me clarify it : No this will not be a hate fic demonizing the Louds and portraying Lincoln as always being in the right, they will be portrayed as realistically flawed but still sympathetic characters to the best of my abilities.**


	2. A Little Sisters Loyalty

**And the story continues. Now we`re gonna see what the rest of the sisters who remained with Lincoln and their father are doing. This one will be rather Lana focused, and to a lesser extent on Lucy as well.**

The next morning, there was turmoil in the room of the younger three Loud siblings , when they woke up to Lisa trying to do psychiatric tests on them, by questioning her older siblings about their thoughts regarding their parents recent divorce, which naturally struck a cord with them. " Why are you doing this?" an annoyed Lana asked from her bunk, the 3 year old genius wrote something down in her notepad before answering in her usual stoic tone " Simple, since our dear patriarch gave me prohibitions against experimenting with anything that involved chemicals or engineering, I needed another occupation to challenge my elaborate intellect, now what are your thoughts about the possibility of never seeing your twin again?", her question hit a nerve with Lana.

" Shut up! I will see her again!" the 5 year old tomboy yelled before slowly tearing up "Mom and dad just need time to cool of and make up. Then our family will be together again.", Lisa tilted her glasses " Negative. Statistics show that around 90 % of all couples who go trough a divorce never rekindled their marriage. And taking into account how mother moved out of town with her half of our sisterhood and how her parting words to our father were...hmm what's the most adequate adjective...eh very hostile, your theory seems rather implausible.", "You're lying! They will make up!" Lana cried before burying her head beneath her pillow trying to tune Lisa out.

" Subject reacts with extreme emotional outburst and denial..." Lisa casually wrote her observations in her notepad, Lucy looked down from the top bunk, slowly growing frustrated with her younger sisters apparent apathy " Will you stop `t you see you`re hurting her?" the 7 year old goths typical monotonous tone was gaining a hint of anger, "I fail to fathom how my psychiatric analysis is causing any harm." Lisa replied as emotionlessly as she always does, " Lana doesn't want to talk about it and your`re making her cry." while Lucy remained composed the anger in her voice was growing more evident, but Lisa didn't pay any mind to it.

"Perhaps I should continue with you, now wh...: " I`m not going to play your guinea pig." Lucy cut her of and turned her back on Lisa, the spectacled toddler made notes " And what's your thoughts regarding our brother? You seemed especially distraught when he ceased to communicate with us?", "Stop it!" Lucy demanded whie curling into a ball, now sounding genuinely frustrated " But in hindsight your default emotional state has always one of pessimism. Could this be some kind of coping mechanism? Are your nihilistic views and anti-social tendencies the result of..." Lucy let out a frustrated groan as she grabbed her clothes and climbed down, she rushed out of the room, leaving Lisa with the sobbing Lana.

Lucy changed in the bathroom, once she exited it she spotted Lincoln by the kitchen table, drawing something. She wanted to go talk to him, but feared that he would yell at her, as she slowly tried to approach him he noticed her and shot her a quick, disapproving, glance before turning his back without saying a single word, to Lucy the message was clear, Lincoln didn't want to see her. Making a sniff the little goth sat down on the couch and turned the tv on, not caring what was on, Lincoln was still mad at her, she was starting to fear that her brother hated her now, the thought of it made her shed a tear.

"Good morning familia!" a chipper Luan bursted out of her room after receiving a callback, only to be meet with awkward silence. She noticed Lincoln at the table " Hey Lincoln guess what? I found my first comedy gig!" her brother ignored her and kept focusing on his drawing, Luan`s smile dropped, but she still tried to strike a conversation " Well it's not exactly a "comedy gig", but I was hired to perform at a little boys birthday party, and if he and his friends like my act I will be payed!" , "Yeah, sure, whatever. Now stop pestering me." Lincoln blurted out apathetically, Luan sighed dejectedly and left him alone, before noticing Lucy. She was curled up and even by Lucy standards she seemed unusually depressed, Luan thought that if she couldn't reach out to her brother she might at least lift someone's spirit up.

" Eh hey Lucy, are you alright?" Luan asked as she sat down next to her little sister who gave a quiet "no", Luan quickly gained an idea why. She knew that this was no time to be cracking jokes, so she didn't beat around the bush," Is it about Lincoln?" Lucy slowly nodded " He hates me..." the goth quietly murmured, Luan was taken aback, she asked Lucy if Lincoln had said anything to her, but she told Luan that Lincoln specifically didn't say anything and ignored her, " Don't be ridiculous Lucy, he doesn't hate anyone of us, he`s...just still upset over things and he`ll get better." Lucy remained quiet, so Luan changed the topic.

" Say I was heading to perform at a birthday party and... I was wandering if you would like to come with me...I mean all the kids will be around your age, I`m sure they'll let you in." Lucy was suprised to hear one of her sisters inviting her to one of their events, but to her Luan`s suggestion sounded like a really bad idea, " Thanks, but no thanks, I`m not good with other kids." Lucy declined, but Luan persisted and put her hand on the goth`s shoulder "Come now, dad said that you should get more sociliezed and this is a great chance for it, you have nothing to fear, this is a party, a place where everyone comes to have a fun time.", Lucy looked back "I won't fit in." " Lucy don't be so pessimistic, I`m sure they`ll like you, you just need to loosen up a bit. Can't you just trust me on this one? And besides I could really use an assistant with some of my acts." , "And you expect me of all people to assist you?" Lucy quietly asked in disbelif, " Don't worry it's not a hard task, you just need to bring me some props on stage and that's it. For the rest of the party you're free to enjoy yourself, now what do you say?". Lucy still felt unsure, but feeling that her brother didn't want her around, she reluctantly agreed to go along.

...

Lincoln was occupied drawing his own comic when he saw Luan coming out of their room with a suitcase and with Lucy following her, who was surprisingly wearing a pair of black hair clip, holding her bags away and revealing her eyes, Lincoln couldn't remember the last time his gothic sisters had left her eyes exposed. He heard the girls talk, but didn't care to pay attention. " Why do I have to wear these things again?" Lucy asked monotonously, the older sister smiled " I told you, you need to loosen up and not hide yourself from the world, which deserves to see those pretty little eyes. Now come on we have to arrive early so I can start practicing."

With that she took Lucy`s hand and led her out of the apartment, Lincoln was grateful to finally have some piece, but that didn't last as he was startled by a door busting open. " Leave me alone!" Lana cried as she ran towards the bathroom and closed the door. Lincoln groaned " _What are those two up to now?_ " he bitterly thought, before Lisa suddenly came to him, " Pardon me dear brethren, but it appears Lucy and Lana are unwilling to participate in my experiment so... "Oh geez, they don't want to be your test subjects? What`s wrong with them?" Lincoln said sarcastically faking ignorance, Lisa was suprised by his tone, but remained stoic "Eh yes, and that's why I was hoping if you woul..." "Forget it." Lincoln cut the toddler of.

"Excuse me?" Lisa cocked an eye brow, Lincoln sighed in annoyance " I don't know what you're up to and honestly I don't give a crap, but I'm not helping you cuz I`m busy. Now beat it!", but Lisa persisted and spoke up in her usual stoic manner " Lincoln you're crude little attempts at art can wait, but my scientific exploits can't, now if you would answer a few questions..." she was interrupted when Lincoln slammed his fist against the table "Now listen up you entitled little garden gnome." Lincoln hissed trough his teeth while pointing at the 3 year old genius who was actually becoming unnerved by her brother" I`ve had it with your pompous attitude and your stupid little experiments and I'm not putting up with it any longer, so unless you`re deaf listen closely, cuz I won't say it a third time. Piss off!" With that Lincoln turned back to his comic, while Lisa was left stunned before growing a scowl "Fine." she sad with a small hint of anger " I was going to look over my previous data anyway. And there was no need for vulgar language." she left and shut the door to her room close.

Massaging his forehead and sighing Lincoln went to the kitchen sink to take a glass of water, he took a sip and left the rest on the table. A teary Lana peeked out from the bathroom, the rest of her sisters were gone and Lincoln was alone. This was her chance, she could finally talk to him, this past week she had felt a lot of grief, one big reason was being separated from Lola, the other one was the way her big bro has been ignoring and avoiding her for days, Lana may have been a preschooler but she could tell that Lincoln was angry and that his anger was directed at his sisters, including her. She had more courage than Lucy, but even she felt unnerved by Lincoln`s presence now, as he didn't seem like the brother she used to know, but rather like some bitter, distant stranger.

"Lincoln..." she asked meekly, very uncharacteristic of her, Lincoln stopped drawing but didn't face her, "Lincoln please, look at me..." she pleaded, "What is it?" he asked calmy, but still noticeably irritated. Lana didn't know what to say, she felt almost afraid, "Can I join you, I like drawing too..." she asked shuffling her feet. Lincoln didn't hesitate with his answer, "No." he said plainly, she looked at him with puppy dog eyes but the boy was unmoved and turned away from her. Lana struggled not to cry, "Lincoln are you still mad at us?", he didn't answer and she took his silence as a yes " I`m sorry, we didn't want this to happen, it was an accident!" she was starting to tear up as she tugged him by the shirt trying to get his attention " Sorry doesn't cut it now!" Lincoln suddenly faced her "If you girls could have just acted like freaking normal people, none of this would have happened. In fact even if you still destroyed the house mom and dad might have stuck trough it together if they at least thought that their children appreciated how much they sacrificed for them and gave them some happiness for their efforts."

Lana shrunk down, ashamed to face him, but Lincoln wasn't finished " But no, all of you acted like spoiled and greedy brats, who gave them, and me too, nothing but stress and mysery, you for example always fought with Lola for the stupidest and most petty of reasons and caused damage to the house in the process, constantly dragged mud into our house and brought in whatever disease infested wild animal you came across. Who do you think had to clean up all of that?" Lana kept looking down, teary eyed, Lincoln turned back to his makeshift comic " Now leave me alone and go watch tv or something!".

But Lana didn't listen, she stood there remembering how much she had lost recently. Since they moved in here she had been faced with the most restrictions, they couldn't keep their pets in their apartment and had to give them away to a pet shelter, and Lana had to leave Hops back at the pond where she found him, for the animal loving girl this was heart shattering, but further still their father thoroughly forbade her from playing in the mud and he wouldn't even let her try to fix anything at their new home, despite her skill as a handyman, out of fear that she would break it. And worst of all her twin stayed with their mother and was out of her life and now Lincoln was trying to effectively do the same thing. For Lana it was too much and she couldn't take it.

" I`m sorry Lincoln, I`m so sorry!" she didn`t hold it back now, she was crying intensely as she tried hugging her brother which took him by suprise. He tried getting her of him, but struggled to." Please don't hate me! You're my only brother and I can't live without you!" she spoke between sobs with her voice cracking, Lincoln slowly pried her of but Lana clung on to his arm, "Let go!" he yelled but his little sister didn't listen, "Please forgive me!" Lana cried, while Lincoln tried to pull his arm free, he finally did but then knocked over the glass of water and it spilled all over his makeshift comic.

" Now look what you did! You girls have to ruin everything!" Lincoln snapped at Lana who was now covering and still crying " I`m sorry, I didn't mean to..." she struggled to speak between sobs. She saw her brother gritting his teeth and holding his head in anger, Lincoln started doing breathing exercise to calm himself before he stormed towards his room. He came out with a backpack and went straight towards the front door. "Where are you going?" Lana called after him, "Anywhere that isn't here!" he said giving her a glare before slamming the door shut. Now alone Lana curled up on the floor and started sobbing softly ...

...  
Lincoln was sitting on a park bench near a small lake, the park seemed rather empty today and the boy appreciated the quiet atmosphere while he was in deep thought. Part of him felt like dirt for yelling at Lana, he felt like he was unfair to her, after all she just wanted to apologize and she didn't mean to ruin his drawing, but the other part was telling him not to fall into that trap " _Don't be a soft headed whimp, you`ve seen them like this before, where they seemed regretful at first, but then snapped back to their old ways in no time._ " he kept telling himself that, but he kept recalling the image of Lana sobbing and begging for him for his forgiveness, and she's only 5, she doesn't know any better...

Lincoln groaned inwardly " _I`m still a weakling , I`ve been like that my whole life, letting others walk all over me, I have to change_..." he took his bag and pulled out a stuffed rabbit toy, Bun-Bun, he`s been attached to this thing for years and had faced mockery from both his older sisters and whatever kids managed to learn about it, in the past he would have passionately defended it, but right now this thing just seemed like a symbol of his spinelessness, a 10 year old still clinging on to a plush toy, that did seem pretty pathetic now that he looked back at it, grabbing a rock Lincoln tied it's long ears into a knot around the rock and then promptly threw it into the lake, where it sank. Lincoln pulled out another thing from his backpack, a photo album showing all the supposed happy memories he had with his sisters, " _Yeah, memories of lies and make belief._ " he thought bitterly.

He tried to send his album to the bottom of the lake as well, but he kept hesitating to throw it, almost like his brain signals couldn't reach his hand, " _Come on Lincoln_..." he urged himself as he lifted the album with both of his hands ready to toss it into the lake, but once again he hesitated until he finally dropped the book into his lap sighting and closing his eyes " _Why can't I do it?_ " he lamented.

Then suddenly he felt something icy cold and sticky being shoved into his face, Lincoln yelped in shock as he opened his eye and felt the smell of chocolate ice cream. The quietness got punctuated by obnoxious laughter as Lincoln wiped his face and turned to see another boy, around 12 years in age, sitting to his left, he had light brown, messy hair and was wearing dark grey jeans with a white t-shirt with blue sleeves, and was of course holding an empty cone.

As he continued laughing Lincoln became mad "Why did you do that for!" he snapped at the stranger, "Oh come on dorko, can't you take a joke?" the boy said jovially as he nonchalantly and quite painfully finger flicked Lincolns nose. " Wow man, when Taylor said that you looked like a deformed chipmunk he wasn't kidding." the boy blurted out, "What are you talking about?" Lincoln spoke out nasally clentching his soar nose , "Oh don't tell me you forgot about me?" Lincoln froze as he recognized that voice, he turned to see that same black haired boy with the red cap sitting to his right, smirking darkly.

Feeling scared, Lincoln grabbed hold of the book and tried to leave, but both boys grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back to sit, "What `s your hurry shrimp? Don't you wanna get a greeting into your new neighborhood?" Taylor quipped sarcastically before noticing Lincoln`s photo album, "Wacha got there?" he snatched the book to take a look at it. " Hey give it back!" Lincoln tried to grab it but Taylor easily shoved him out of reach with one hand " Lyle can you please restrain him?" he asked in a bored tone, his friend obeyed and Taylor looked back at the book and once he read the cover he started snickering in disbelief before bursting out in uncontrollable laughter.

Holding Lincoln, Lyle looked at his friend in confusion before Taylor showed him the cover "Dude check out the title!" the black haired boy struggled to speak clearly without laughing, "Eh... memories of...Lincol...eh Loud...wait a minute isn't that the name of one of those dead presidents?" Lyle asked dumbly. Taylor`s face dropped and he facepalmed "No shit for brains, that's Abraham Lincoln..." he snapped at his friends stupidity "...and that's not the funny part, the last name of this pipsqueak is actually "Loud.", it took him a moment but Lyle finally got it and also started snicker as he looked at their captive "Loud? What kind of a retarded last name is Loud?" he questioned mockingly, " Yeah suerly that can't be your family`s real name?" Taylor asked rather sincerely.

"Yes that is my name, what about it!" Lincoln snapped, upon hearing the confirmation the two boys once again started hollering with laughter, Lincoln was boiling on the inside, he wanted to punch them out so badly, but he couldn't even break out of Lyle`s grip forcing him to wait in quiet fury until they laughed themselves out. "Okay enough about his name, let's learn more about the..." Taylor snickered "... great Loud family." he flipped trough the pages, with Lyle looking over his shoulder while still holding Lincoln, until he found a group shot of the family.

Both boys were suprised at what they saw " Wait, are all these girls your sisters?" Taylor asked, panting heavily Lincoln angrily confirmed it, "Wow! Who would have guessed that the whimps folks had so much fun in the bed." Taylor elbowed Lyle who snickered in return " Or maybe one of his folks isn't very faithful to their spouse, didn't you say that his mother had an affair with a chipmunk? " Lyle asked making Taylor palm his chin "You know, you got a point. He doesn't really resemble anyone else in the picture.", Lincoln felt his body shaking with anger, like a volcano ready to explode, but Taylor and Lyle soon started making a full blown commentary on the rest of his family.

"Look at his dad rocking the clown hair, and boy is that one hell of a honker!" "And his mom sure let herself go!" "Well you know that old saying Lyle : a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. And look at the blonde chick, she`s quite the looker, but you can tell from her derp face that there isn't much going up there!" "Yeah she's probably retarded or something. And yikes what's wrong with that little girl! She looks creepy as hell" "No kidding, she looks like some undead ghoul! Has she ever experienced some sun light? And why is her hair hidding her eyes? Is she a cyclops? "And why is that one dressed up like Princes Peach? " And look! Lincoln isn't the only one with possible rodent heritage! That chick`s chompers are so huge she needs to restrain them with giant braces!"

Suddenly Lyle screamed as Lincoln stomped his foot making the bully let go of him. Lincoln tried to grab the book out of Taylor`s hands, but the older boy was too strong and smirked as he had a brief and one sided tug-of-war with Lincoln before suddenly letting go, making Lincoln hit the ground and the book falling out of his grasp. Lincoln tried getting up but was kicked in the chest by Lyle, as Lincoln fell down clutching in pain Lyle loomed over, now looking furious " You better watch yourself you little dumbass or I'll squash your head!" he hissed while Taylor picked up the photo album " Don't be so harsh on him dude, if the little man wants to get his pictures book back let him get it!" he held the book up to tease Lincoln. Lifting himself inspite of his aching body Lincoln glared and charged at the bully.

But before he could reach him..." Lincoln catch!", Lincoln saw the book flying over him and was caught by Lyle, Lincoln ran at him..."Too slow!" he threw it back to Taylor, the back and forth continued as the two played "catch" with their victim, until Lincoln finally tackled Taylor while he held the book, but then "accidentally" threw it into the lake, "Ups! Butter fingers!" Taylor quipped as he swiftly moved out of the way, letting a distracted Lincoln fall into the mud at the rivers edge. Lincoln raised his head and looked in shock with his mouth agape as his photo album sank to the bottom of the lake.

"And so the history of the ancient Loud clan was lost forever..." Taylor said melodramatically as he took of his cap of and placed it against his chest, Lyle also did a mock salute "Yeah one of history`s greatest tragedies...". They moved closer to Lincoln and saw that he was starting to cry " Aw look Taylor the wittle baby is cwying!" Lyle mocked him, " Yeah and it's your fault for being so old fashioned instead of just uploading your precious family photos to your computer you freak!" Taylor made a typing motion with his fingers as he and his buddy kept laughing at the distraught Lincoln, who turned around to face them, his grief turning into anger as their laughter tormented him. The two saw him glaring at them, his face turning red and his body trembling from the boiled up rage. "You`ll pay for that!" he hissed making the two giggle.

" Oh no, I think the pipsqueak means business! Please don't beat us up little man!" Taylor mocked him, they weren't taking him seriously and admits his anger and empty threat Lincoln still knew that he couldn't fight them no matter how hard he tried, realizing that he started tearing up and went quiet. After a brief silence the bullies started poking at him again, "What's the matter Loud? Cat got your tongue?" Taylor tried to trigger him, but got no reaction as Lincoln just looked down on himself, Lyle went over and squatted over him, waving his hand in front of Lincoln`s face " Hello anybody still there?", Lincoln glared at him but still gave no response, but then he saw an oportunity for payback.

" Hey Taylor I think we finally broke the dweeb!", but just as Lyle finished that sentence Lincoln`s foot collided with his crotch. Suddenly paralyzed by grueling pain Lyle clutched his hands around his groin as he collapsed to the ground, Lincoln dug his hand into the mud as Taylor watched his fallen friend with utter shock and suprise, "Why you little..." he growled as he advanced towards Lincoln, but soon screamed as he was pelted in the eyes with mud, rising up Lincoln tackled the blinded bully and pushed him over, making fall ontop of Lyle. He wanted to hurt them more, but he quickly realized that he would stand no chance if he stayed to fight. Ceasing his opportunity Lincoln made a break for it.

Lincoln finally stopped admits a patch of trees and bushes, feeling out of breath, " _No...you have to push on...have to get out of here..._ " he urged himself while trying to catch his breath. Then suddenly he jumped when someone grabbed his arm, he turned around, only to be shocked when he was faced with Lana. "Lincoln what were those boys doing to you?" the little girl asked in concern, Lincoln shook of the suprise and stared at her in disbelief " Lana what are you doing here?" he asked in shock and fear. " I...followed you to make sure you were alright..." Lana admitted while Lincoln looked stunned with fear " _This can't be happening? Not now!_ " he lamented inwardly.

" Come on! He went this way!" he head Taylor yell in the distance, Lincoln`s heart pounded with terror, he had to act fast. Lana was surprised as her brother started pushing her towards a bush, " What are you doing..., " No time for explanations, just hidde there and don't make a sound!" Lincoln said urgently, " But you? Those boys want to hurt you, don't they? Lana protested as she was forcefully pushed into the bush. " Will you just listen to me for once!" Lincoln struggled not to yell "...I`ll be alright...just stay there and be quiet." he pleaded with her, " No I won't let them hurt you!" Lana cried out, "Will you just..." Lincoln was suddenly hoisted up by the collar of his shirt and had a fist slammed into his back. He was dropped to the ground, aching with pain and saw an enraged Taylor standing over him, his face stained with mud, "You've sealed your fate now freak!" he growled ready to pummel him.

" Stop it! Why are you hurting my brother ?" Lana cried as she pulled Taylor by his shirt, the boy yanked his shirt out of her grasp and was shocked by the sudden presence of a little girl, right then Lyle caught up and forcefully pulled him out of the way " Move it Taylor! The little shit is mine!" he growled and stood over Lincoln, his face had a look of unhinged fury, but as he rose both of his fists up Lana jumped between him and Lincoln, " Stop it! You're hurting him! she cried, "Out of the way runt!" Lyle angrily commanded, "No! I won't let you hurt my brother!" Lana shouted with a look of determination on her face. "What are you doing Lana? Get out of here now!" Lincoln fearfully ordered his sister, but she ignored him.

" I said get out of my way or I'll..." Lyle yelled as he swung his arm up, ready to backhand the little pest in front of him, but Taylor grabbed hold of it, "That's enough Lyle! Let's go." he ordered, suddenly gaining a much more serious tone while looking back at the little girl, Lyle looked at him with disbelief " You can't be serious?" he angrily asked causing Taylor to give him a glare that made Lyle shrink back, "I`m very serious and I said let's go, or do you want to _argue_ about it?" he said threateningly, Lyle gulped, getting the message and not wanting to get into a fight with him. The two left the scene, but Lyle shot Lincoln one final glare, "This isn't over freak!" he threatened before the two of them were gone.

Lincoln couldn't believe it, it was over, the danger was finally over, Lana grabbed his hand and helped him get up. Lincoln hissed in pain as he straightened himself, before looking at his little sister, feeling a mixture of worry and anger boiling up inside of him, he snapped at her " What the hell were you thinking Lana? You could have gotten yourself hurt!", this time however Lana snapped back at him " What was I supposed to do? Those boys were hurting you and you`re my brother!" , " And those creeps could have hurt you a lot worse! How could I have lived with myself if something happened to you..." Lincoln stopped himself as he realized what he was saying, memories of his previous argument with Lana flooded back, he was nothing but spiteful towards her all day and yet she just stood up to a pair of seventh graders to protect him.

Lana watched her brother as he went quiet, " Lincoln are you still mad at me?" she asked quietly while tearing up, Lincoln kneeled down to her " No...I`m not, come here you..." he extended his arms as Lana shed a tear of joy and rushed to give her a brother a big hug.

...

A short while later the siblings were resting against a tree, Lana noticed how her brother was wincing in pain when she hugged him and was quickly questioning him about it. Reluctantly, Lincoln pulled his shirt up, revealing 4 heavy bruises spred across his torso, Lana gasped in shock and Lincoln soon told her about his first encounter with Taylor and the one from today, after finishing his story Lana felt furious " What a pair of rotten jerk-heads!" she yelled before regaining her composure " Lincoln why didn't you tell us?", he looked away, feeling ashamed " I felt embarrassed. I didn't want to look any whimpier than I already did." he solemnly admited, Lana looked at him puzzled " What do you mean embarrassed? We`re you're family, why would we make fun about you being hurt?" she sounded appalled at the very idea of doing that.

" I know, but I guess it's just hard to admit when you're getting bullied. It always has been...", Lana caught on the implications " Wait did this happen to you before?" she asked, " Yeah, all the time at school, me and Clyde have been made fun of a lot, especially by Chandler and his friends...but compared to what happened today, anything I experienced at school would look like harmless teasing by comparison. I guess as they grow older bullies tend to up their tactics." , Lana felt depressed after hearing that, their brother has always been picked on and they didn't even notice it? "Lincoln? Why do these guys do that? Why do they pick on you?" she asked naively, Lincoln sighed " It's hard to explain...I guess there are a lot of resons...they either think you look weird or that your hobbies are stupid...or other reasons like wanting to show of... _like Lynn likes to do_." he bitterly added in his head.

They remained silent for a bit, Lincoln then decided that he had talked enough about his sorry life story, as he needed to get something of his conscience, " Lana I`m sorry for yelling at you this morning, that was uncalled for.", "It okay Lincoln, I`m not mad at you." she said sincerely, " I mean it Lana, I was a jerk and I wanna make it up to you." he calmly stated, Lana gave him a smile "Then I want you to hang out with me, like before." she asked while getting exited, " Sure thing Lana." Lincoln promised, causing Lana to give him another hug, making him wince in pain again. "Sorry." she awkwardly apologized, but Lincoln smiled "Its alright. It`s a good kind of pain." he hugged her back. Then he remembered something.

"Say I saw you running into the bathroom and you seemed pretty happened?", Lana hesitated but eventually told him about what had happened to her this morning, which soon turned into her spilling up all her bottled up emotions regarding their current predicament. She was now crying into Lincoln`s chest, as he was comfroting her, now knowing how she was just as broken up about the whole thing as he was, and according to her so was Lucy, Lincoln was starting to feel selfish for thinking that only he was negatively affected by the whole situation. "There, there, just let it all out." he petted her on her back, she finally stopped crying "Thaks Lincoln, I feel better now." she wiped away her remaining terms, but then she frowned again, "But I still miss Lola.".

"Don't worry, I`m sure dad will able to arrange a way for you to see her again, but first we just need to get back on our feet after this whole ordeal." Lincoln tried to raise her spirit "Though I'm kinda suprised that you miss her so much given how much you two fought in the past.", "Yeah, Lola can be a real pain in the butt...but she was my pain in the butt, we fought a lot, but we also had a lot of fun together. She was one of my best friends...besides you. Now I just got you and dad." she sadly stated.

Lincoln raised an eye brow " And what about our other sisters?" he questioned cautiously, Lana rubbed her neck awkwardly unsure about what to say " Well...I am happy that they`re still there, it's just that..." her voiced trailed of, so Lincoln decided to finish what he guessed his preeschooler sister was trying to say, "...you don't feel very close to any of them?", "Yes that's it. You and Lola are the only ones that really hanged out and played with me." she confessed, "Oh okay, I get it." Lincoln said understandably, which got him thinking, he couldn't really recall any two of his sisters, besides the twins obviously, ever sharing much of a bond, sure in a big family it wasn't easy to give all of your siblings some quality time, he was kinda impressed with himself for having managed to do just that, but his sisters always seemed to keep to themselves outside of family activities.

" _Guess they're just too different to find any common ground or even get along._ " Lincoln thought, he looked up towards the sun and saw that it was already past noon, " _I had enough pain and fear for one day in this neighborhood._ " he thought as took his little sisters hand "Lets go home Lana, we can play something together there, this place isn't safe.", "Okay Lincoln!" Lana said happily as her big brother led her back home...

 **And that's it for now, it seems Lana and Lincoln are rekindling their relationship and Lincoln might be on the way to give the rest of his sisters his forgiveness, though obviously some will be easier to reconcile with than others.**

 **And regarding the backstory of how events led to Mr. and getting divorced and the siblings being split apart, I intentionally left it vauge and I don't intend to devote any flashbacks, let alone a whole chapter to explaining in detail what exactly happened, I want it to be left to the readers imagination, though I did by this point more or less leave enough references by the characters to give you the all the important bits regarding how we got to the current status in this AU. To explore any more of it would in my opinion be nothing but tedious and distract from the main story, which like I said won't be very lengthy, thought I might have to go back on my "3 chapters maximum limit" statement, I`m learning that stories always appear much shorter in your head than as a written, final product.**


	3. The Brutal Reality

**Boy this story is turning way longer than I expected, but anyway now the family drama continuous when Lincoln meets up with Lucy and Luan, and they`re about to open up to him. Also if you hate Lisa (which I certainly don't) then you'll find her scenes very cathartic.**

 _" And so each frog claims it's own_ _water lilly, from where they communicate with their neighbors using a wide range of complex vocalizations..._."

Lana and Lincoln were watching a documentary centering on Lana`s favorite amphibians, Lincoln hoped that this would help make her feel better, and he promised to soon take her for a visit to the local zoo, which wasn't too far from their apartment and also had a petting zoo within it. Hopefully being surrounded by animals would help get her mind of their lost pets, it seemed to be working as she was enthusiastically watching the documentary, " Those frog sure look like they're having a fun time, do you think Hops is also doing well?" Lana asked eagerly, " Oh certainly , I`m sure he`s doing great back at his old pond, frogs aren't meant to be kept as pets anyway, they need a lot of water and space to live a happy and peaceful life..." Lincoln was trying to reassure her, but the tv wasn't cooperating with him.

" Wow! Look at that one swimming!" Lana pointed excitably at the underwater footage, but Lincoln took notice of a black shadow following behind the little amphibian, " _Unbeknownst to this frog, she has caught the eye of a pike, who's carefully trail_...", " Hey what are you doing!" Lana complained as Lincoln suddenly started channel surfing " Eh...we`ve seen enough frogs for today, how about we find a cartoon!" Lincoln stated nervously while holding the remote.

" Subject A tries to shelter subject B from the primeval fate that might have befallen the individual _Lithobates clamitans melanota_ with whom`s she has developed some form of pathological attachment." Lisa was suddenly there, sitting on a stool and writtng things down in her notepad. Both of her siblings were surprised, but Lana almost immediately grew irritated " Will you buzz of Lisa and leave us alone!" the little blonde complained, Lisa remained stoic " Don't pay mind to my presence, I`m just observing and collecting data."

"Lisa!" Lincoln growled " We are not some kind of animals for you to study!" his brainy toddler sister cut him of " Technically speaking we _Homo sapiens sapiens_ belong to the Animalia kingdom, though of course some of us have more advanced intellects that separate us mentally from the other organisms, more than others.", " Are you calling me stupid!" Lana growled narrowing her eyes, Lisa remained unfazed " Perhaps a crude term, but your IQ has never been particularly..., "That does it egghead!" Lana ran at her sister, but Lincoln jumped in to keep them apart, before a scuffle could ensue, "Le me at her!" Lana shouted, " Subject B reacts with raw aggression..."

" That's enough!" Lincoln commanded, holding Lana back with one hand and taking the remote with the other and found some preeschooler cartoon, " There Lana, just watch this for now, I'll be back in a second..." he turned to Lisa "You, me, talk now!", without allowing her to utter a single word Lincoln dragged Lisa back to her room. " What are you trying to acomplish with your stupid little test?" Lincoln demanded to know after shutting the door close.

Lisa crossed her arms " I always thought of you as one of the more...advanced anthropoids in our family, surely you would be able to comprehend that an advanced mind such as mine has to constantly keep itself working by collecting knowledge trough elaborate research and investigation about the various phenomenon that surround it.", " Are you trying to say that you're curious about how the world works? Is that it?" Lincoln threw his arms ups " Because guess what, being curious is a common thing for toddlers, but most try to satisfy it without hurting others or blowing things up!".

" I`m afraid I`m not very compatable to my peers, If you expect me to amuse myself with lego bricks or cheap plastic dolls, I`m sorry to disappoint you. And I fail to fathom how my psychiatric analysis is causing any harm.", Lincoln made a light chuckle at her response " You know Lisa, for all of your supposed brain power, it's hilarious how dumb you are when it comes to understanding humans.", " Excuse me?" Lisa asked, sounding offended.

Lincoln groaned and glared at her " You're making Lana and Lucy cry, they`re still upset about this ordeal and instead of acting like a sister and giving them comfort, you treat them like lab rats and keep twisting the knife by just bluntly reminding them about this whole thing and how they played a part into making it happen. Do you actually enjoy watching others suffer?"

Lisa seemed suprised by the accusation but remained calm "Lincoln I can assure you that there are no sadistic or malicious agendas behind my research..." she went to stack up a bunch of her documents "... anything I do is purely for scientific goals.", "Oh I see." Lincoln said leaning up against the door, crossing his arms " So I guess you just don't care about the well being of your family, as long as your scientific curiosity gets satisfied, there's no place for love or empathy.", "Like I said, preoccupying myself with petty human emotions would only hinder me on my academic exploits." Lisa said emotionlessly as she finished stacking up her documents.

Lincoln narrowed his eyes " So you really don't care about any of us? Why don't you just admit it! If we all died you`d probably shrug it of and dissect us to study human anatomy up close." he said coldly, that remark made the 3 year old genius freeze still, actually feeling stunned. She turned towards her older brother with an angry glare " That's a grossly baseless assumptions you're making.", Lisa sounded suprisingly angry but Lincoln didn't flinch " Or really, and where's your evidence for it. After all you`ve done and said you expect me to believe that you care even an ounce about us? Sheesh you're a lot dumber than I gave you credit for."

Lisa`s eye twitched after hearing that simple word being directed at her again"Will you please refrain from using that word." she demanded with irritation creeping into her usual monotone, Lincoln smirked slightly, finding enjoyment in seeing the snot nosed brat getting triggered, " What's the matter smarty pants, can't take criticism?" Lincoln snarcked much to the little geniuses ire, " Criticism? That's preposterous, need I remind you that I have elevated myself all the way to being a college freshman within a year, while you still haven't officially graduated to your fift grade."

Lisa was starting to sound upset and Lincoln was honestly enjoying it " Intelligence isn't mesured with book smarts alone little sis, another important element is basic common sense, and I think even Leni has you beat in that category. I mean you're trying out psychology despite knowing next to nothing about human emotions, in hindsight that was a, dare I say, rather scatterbrained choice of a hobby."

" Shut up..." Lisa was trying to stay calm, but her anger was trying to burst trough her gritted teeth, seeing behind her paper thin facade of composure Lincoln pressed on " And speaking of you being scatterbrained, I do recall how a lot of your gadgets and experiments had the bad habit of spontaneously combusting, now I'm no genius but I'm pretty sure that wasn't meant to be part of their programming." That line finally broke the camels back "Shut up!" Lisa shouted " Shut up! Shut up you...stupid poop face!" the genius was suddenly sounding a lot more like a regular toddler throwing a tantrum. After hearing Lincoln snicker she clenched her fist up "Stop mocking me or..."

"Or what? Are you gonna beat me up you pipsqueak?" Lincoln was now looming over her as Lisa started backing away, Lincoln cringed inwardly at how he suddenly sounded like Taylor and Lyle, but he pushed that thought away as he looked down on Lisa who was showing signs of fear. "That's what I thought, behind those fancy words you`re just a scared and spoiled little brat." Lincoln turned towards the door before giving Lisa one final glance "And I'm warning you, leave me and Lana alone, or your little behind will get a long awaited gift, the back of my hand!", Lisa gasped " You wouldn't dare!" she hissed, " Oh believe me I would, I told you before that I`m done with your attitude and I'm done playing Mister Nice Guy. So you better watch it!", with that he slammed the door shut, leaving Lisa alone. Lisa felt strange and empty on the inside, she`d never seen Lincoln this angry and he never threatened her with violence before, having just experienced that she felt sick to her stomach, she wasn't used to being flooded with emotions, but what Lincoln said to her felt unatural and scary, if not painful, Lisa then noticed how her tear ducts started producing liquid.

" What happened there I heard you guys yelling?", "Its nothing, I just gave Lisa a piece of my mind. She won't bother us again anytime soon." Lincoln told Lana as he sat back next to her, she asked him how he had managed to get Lisa of all people to loose her nerve, and was promptly laughing after hearing what went on, "Serves the egghead righ for being such a meanie!" Lana praised him and Lincoln felt a little bit of pride after putting the little genius in her place "Yeah I guess she doesn't feel so smart anymore.", right then they heard the door being opened.

A dowbeat Luan entered the room with a dejected looking Lucy holding her hand, " Heya Lana and Linky!" Luan waved trying to sound cheerful, but instead she sounded pretty disheartened, Lincoln`s focus immediately shifted towards Lucy who looked like a wreck, she was gazing at the floor, her eyes were blood shot and her pale face was shining from freshly cried tears. " It's okay Lucy, you're home now..." Luan placed her arm on the goths shoulder trying to comfort her, but she shoved her arm away and shot her brother a brief tearful glance before running into her room.

" Lucy wait!" Lincoln shouted but the door was already closed, he turned and glared at Luan " Just what the hell did you do to her?" an angry Lincoln shouted while getting up, the remorseful Luan held her hands up in defense as she sat on the nearby stool " I`m sorry it was all my stupid idea, I convinced her to go to that birthday party."

"What birthday party?" Lincoln questioned, getting more frustrated, a worried Lana held his hand to keep him calm."I told ya, I was hired as a performer at party, and well I kinda convinced Lucy to come with me, you know to mingle and play with other kids her own age, I just wanted to help her, but in the end...well do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?" Luan tried to make a joke, but it didn't help in the slightest. "The bad new!" Lincoln said bluntly, shooting daggers with his eyes.

" Well I told her that the kids would welcome her in with open arms and that she just needed to loosen up. And well it didn't work, I failed to notice it at first do to being focused on my act, but the birthday boy and his guests quickly started making fun of her appearance, and after following my advice of...ugh loosening up she opened up to the kids about herself, revealing how she talks to ghosts, keeps pet bats, practices funerals, her Edwin statue,ect,ects, that only made things worse and they mocked her relentlessly..." Luan`s voice was now getting shaky and gargled by sobs "...the poor kid kept a brave face while acting as my assistant, to make sure I would be paid, but once the show was over I caught her breaking down and learned everything..." Luan was crying now, ashamed of having dragged her little sister into this.

Lincoln was left speechless, while Lana shed some tears thinking about the pain her goth sister must have endured. " And...what`s the good news?" Lincoln asked shakily, Luan looked up wiping away her tears "Well...the guests loved my act, the parents said that they would tell all their friends about me, and they felt so remorseful about what their son did that they payed me twice the money they had owed me, 60 dollars. So yeah my first outing as a performer was a success, but it came at the cost of traumatizing Lucy, what a cruel, twisted joke on me!" Luan was now curling up and crying into her palms. Lincoln was about to go talk to Lucy, but was stopped by Lana " No Lincoln, Luan needs you here, I`ll talk to Lucy and bring her back, we need to talk about this like a family!" Lincoln reluctantly nodded and went over to the crying comedian.

" Why is it that whenever I try to spread some joy all it ends up doing is hurting people, no one likes my jokes, but little kids, whether I do pranks they go haywire and hurt people and make them mad at me, and now this." Luan was sobbing now, her voice becoming noticeably gargled " Maybe I`m just jinxed , no I`m just stupid, I can't get anything right cuz I`m stupid." She looked at Lincoln tearfully " I get why you hate me." she softly said before resuming her sobbing, Lincoln watched her, feeling torn, his previous anger seemed to be melting away at the sight of one of his sisters crying, which was the third time today, " _There you go again being a soft head, letting them guilt trip you!_ " his mind scolded him, but after watching his sister crying like that Lincoln caved in " _I may be soft, but I'm not heartless!_ " he kneeled down and hugged the teen.

" Don't ever talk about yourself like that Luan. You aint stupid. And I could never hate you. I was mad sure, but your still my sister and I love you!" Luan couldn't believe her ears, "I love you too Linky!" she hugged him back " But why would you love a screw up like me? Who causes nothing but mysery!", hugging her tightly Lincoln retorted " You're not a screw up, you just made some mistakes that's all, we all make them, you're comedy might be hit and miss, but at your core your a great girl who only wants to make people happy, and that's what matters." He let his sister go and grabbed her dummy and made a terrible attempt at ventriloquism, even worse than Luan, " _Now come on let's turn that smile upside down_.", Luan started giggling " Stop it before you embarrass yourself." she said happily while grabbing the dummy.

Within their shared Lana and Lisa had a glaring contest, but the genius seemed unusually distraught and turned away from her, not wasting any time Lana climbed up the ladder until she reached the top one and saw Lucy hidding beneath her blanket, her 2 new hair pins were on the floor and appeared smashed. She started nugging her sister " Come out Lucy, I know what those jerks did to you at that party, but you're with your family now and we want to help you." Lucy just barely flinched and muffled something unintelligible from beneath her blanket. Lana never was a patient gal, she forcefully tore the blanket of her and threw it over, reveling Lucy quivering in a fetus position. Slowly Lana crawled into Lucy`s bed and embraced her crying sister.

" Do you feel better now?" the blonde asked softly, but Lucy remained quiet, though she gave a light nod, " I`m really sorry that you had to party with those stupid buggers, I hope their cake was rotten and gave them all tummy aches. But you have to come to us, to Lincoln", "He doesn't want to see me." the goth spoke quietly, chocking on her words, " That's ridiculous, Lincoln is really worried about you, and he needs us all to help him out against his bullies .." Lana tried to motivate her, " Lincoln is being bullied!" Lucy suddenly rose up.

"Luan, you were only trying to help, sometimes things just go wrong even with the best of intentions." Lincoln still tried to comfort his older sister over her guilt " Still I should have known better, I`m supposed to be the responsible one now, yet I was so blindingly optimistic that I failed to realize that those snote nosed brats wouldn't take kindly to Lucy`s...eh pale complexion ." Lincoln sighed, knowing what she was talking about and trying to forget about those days.

Luan rose up feeling angry "I mean seriously the poor kid was born with anemia,clinging on to life, when she was born mom and dad were worried sick that she wouldn't last long and the doctors tried everything to keep her alive, and even now she still feels weak and sensitive at times, and yet those runts called her thing like Ghoul Gal, Zombie Girl and Undead Hag. Ugghhh! I may like black comedy once in a while, but this was just cruel and sick!" It's been a while since someone saw Luan get this angry, but Lincoln fully understood why, those rats made fun of his sisters ailment and if he saw that he would have kicked their asses, no matter how young they were.

Then Lana came out leading Lucy with her, the 2 older siblings soon confronted them, Luan didn't hesitate, she kneeled down and embraced the goth in a big hug, apologizing whole heartedly, "Its okay, I`m not mad at you, It was my choice to go." Lucy answered quietly, but sincerely as she huged her big sis back, " Still I`ll make it up to you, somehow!" Luan promised before releasing Lucy who was soon faced with Lincoln. "Hey Lucy, we haven't talked much in a while, have we?..." Lincoln started talking sheepishly, as Lucy flinched and seemed nervous around him, Lincoln stretched his arms out " I`m sorry if I gave you the idea that I hated you, I could never do that to my little, spooky sisters.I`ll always love you.", before he knew it Lucy jumped in his arms and embraced him. " I missed you." she whispered with a small smile. "Me too. And to be honest Lucy, you're one of the greatest sisters I have, all that spooky stuff aside your a very sweet and compassionate girl who I can easily relate to, as we both like to be quiet and calm, instead of pulling loud, elaborate pranks or dragging mud into the house." "Hey!" Lana and Luan complained with their hands on their hips, "Eh no offence." Lincoln awkwardly added. "Alright now that were a family again..." Lana said enthusiastically before dropping to a more serious tone "...Lincoln you need to tell them about your problem!", "I will Lana, but first we need to let Lucy get some things of her chest..." he smiled at his gothic sister.

...

Lucy told them about her experience at the party and how it wasn't a pleasent one, " First they honestly thought that I was some freak show that came with the "circus", once they realized I wasn't they started calling me names like Ghoul Gal,Vampira, Zombie Girl,Corpse Bride, Walking Frightwig and Wednesday Addams and so on, others made up stories like I was raised in a basement and never saw sunlight or that I was dying of some terminal illness (that remark really hit a nerv with her siblings), but then they started pushing me, pulling my hair, some even threw cake at me which I had to wash of, some tried to lure me outside and lock me out. And they said how no one would want to be friends with a freak like me."

Lincoln and Lana were soon hugging her, while Luan still felt guilty, but given how they`ve been finally talking about their problems she pressed on "Lucy, this might be of topic, but does this stuff happen to you at school?", Lucy quickly noded " My first year at school was the worst year of my life, it's all the same back there, where I have to hide where I can during breaks and write my poems in piece, and they even sometimes stalk me and tear them up for fun." The others felt horrible, they were so preoccupied with their lives to pay any attention to Lucy, unaware of how much she had suffered, Lincoln`s problems at school seemed meager compared to hers. "Lucy I promise you that if I ever see someone making fun of you I'll will personally kick their asses into next Sunday, no matter if I get suspended." Lincoln proudly proclaimed, "Lincoln you don't have to do it." Lucy tried to decline, but Lincoln persisted " No buts Lucy, your my sister and if someone messes with one Loud, they mess with all of us!", "Yeah when I go to school in a year I`ll hogtie any jerks who picks on you." Lana chimed in.

"Thank you guys." Lucy said humbly, while Luan jumped from her stool " Now that's the family spirit! And speaking of family, didn't you want to share something with us Lincoln?"

With all eyes on him now, Lincoln lifted his shirt up much to the collective gasps of Luan and Lucy, "My god Lincoln what happened to you!" Luan nearly screamed before rushing over to see the severe bruises on her little brother, "Lincoln`s being bullied!" Lana blurted out, with him now being the center of attention Lincoln reluctantly told them about his story. Once he was finished, all 3 sisters were mad, but none more so than Luan, who seemed to have had a short fuse.

"How cruel can you get? Tormenting someone just for being different. These damn judgmental pricks and their smarmy, egotistical attitude,these freaking lowlives." Luan went on a rage rant while Lucy was hugging her brother and comforting him about the trauma he had experienced.

" That Taylor guy, never have I heard of such a revolting sleez with such a cruel and piss poor sense of humor, and that buddy of his, Lyle? What kind of a name is Lyle? Oh I get it, it rhymes with vile! That's probably what everyone calls him : Vile Lyle! That's the stupidest bully moniker ever! " That line gave her siblings a hardy laughter, "Not a bad one Luan." Lincoln noted, "Why thank you!" Luan replied kindly before switching back to angry mood.

"Oh but just they wait, for brutalizing my family, I`m gonna plan a prank on them so huge, that it`s gonna traumatize them so much,they won't be able to leave their homes..." while Luan started rambling evily, Lincoln became concerned and shook her out of her trance. " Luan that's not the best way to handle the situation. Besides these guys are tough and nasty, I don't want any of you girls getting on their blacklist like I have.", Lana spoke up "Then what are we supposed to do? Sit back and let them hurt you?".

"No he`s right..." Luan regained her composure..." violence won't be solved with more violence. We need to tell dad about it and let him contact the parents of those bullies to take care of the problem.", Lana frowned " But they deserve a beatdown!", "Oh who's to say their parents won't give them one." Luan quipped " Some parents believe that the only true form of discipline is tough love, very tough love.", The siblings all laughed at that while sitting together on the couch. "Luan?" Lucy suddenly asked making her the center of attention " You seemed pretty upset when you heard about me and Lincoln being bullied...", "Why of course I was upset, I`m your sister!" Luan stated the obvious "Its not just that, the way you reacted after hearing the specific way that we were bullied..." her voice trailed of but Lincoln got what she was getting at " Luan did this kind of thing happen to you?" he asked looking concerned.

All eyes were on Luan now, who gazed away from them, sorrow forming in her eyes, Lincoln got up and set right next to her "Its okay, if you have something on your mind, you can tell us." he said gently, the usually perky comedian let out a sigh before reluctantly speaking " Yes I was made fun of a lot in grade school, many kids made fun of my braces and buck teeth... " that statement hit a cord with Lincoln who consciously covered his mouth..." and I have been called a freak here and there and most kids never laughed at my jokes, but it wasn't all bad I had some friends who were quirky and had similar hobbies, so I got by." Luan smiled lightly, before her face turned grim.

" But then came Junior High, and so far that has been the worst year of my life. Nobody in my class or even the entire school likes me, they all either try to avoid me or laugh at my appearance, I tried winning them over and making them laugh by being the class clow, I even brought to help me out. That was a big mistake, because then my status as a freak was official, the other students finally laughed, but they were laughing at me, not with me, and my attempts to be funny only got me detection numerous times. And then..." Luan was starting to show anger as she grabbed a rubber chicken from her suitcase and started squizing it hard.

The other siblings were already feeling disheartened after hearing just how miserable their perky big sister was at school, but they felt like she hadn't even gotten to the worst part. Lincoln placed his hands on his sisters shoulders, looking at her compassionately " There's someone who is especially mean to you?", he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Kathleen!" Luan spat that name out with pure venom " She's the popular, pretty girl, and she and her pose act like they own the school, and everyone pretty much kisses the floor they walk on, because they are just so darn pretty, and fashionable, and !" Luan felt her stomach turning over after having said thay while squizing the rubber chicken harder "She`s the most vile, manipulative, condecending bitch I have ever meet! She's lives just to make me miserable." Luan was now getting livid " After my first fiasco with trying to make my classmates laugh, she pretended to feel sorry for me and claimed that she wanted to get me into her circle of friends, but I needed to pass a few tests first to get in. I was so desperate for acceptance that I foolishly fell into that obvious trap." Luan grimly remembered those humiliating memories.

" I don't want to go into detail, but let's just after that I was an even bigger joke than before. And it didn't stop there, she started taking delight in mocking me on every turn, calling me things like Tin Teeth,Freakazoid and Squirrel Girl, she and her friends pulled a lot of mean pranks on me, like claiming once that this one cute boy liked me and then watched as I made a fool out of myself. They even filmed several of those pranks, showing it to the whole school and posting some on the internet. And she's even been petitioning for the school book to vote me worst dressed, number one freak and most likely to grow old alone." Luan ripped the rubber chicken in two in a fit of rage after finishing her story with her face turning red, before starting to get teary eyed. " I guess behind all the merry laughter, I`m just one sad, lonely clown." she feebly joked.

All 3 of her siblings moved in to give their oldest sibling a much needed hug, " I`m sorry to hear that Luan, you deserved better than that." Lincoln comfroted her gently. The four remained quiet for a while, after sharing their own inner turmoil with each other, they needed to feel the warmth and safety of their family.

Lincoln was thinking, he saw how at least 3 of his sisters were in just as bad of a state as he was, in the past he did his best to spend some quality time with all of his sisters, and yet he saw that there were still things even he didn't know about them, especially how Lucy and Luan received far worse bullying than he ever did at school, and in his anger he was starting to think that they didn't care about him, but yet today he was proven otherwise.

After a prolonged moment of silence he spoke up "Girls we can't go on like this.", they all looked at him confusion, so he elaborated " Our whole lives, we`ve lived like a chaotic, dysfunctional family, the chaos that swept trough our home life eventually broke our family apart, largely because we took things for granted, keept to ourselves and didn't really appreciate the things we had.", "Lincoln`s right..." Lana somberly chipped in "...we girls were spoiled and ungrateful, and we didn't really spend time together as a family, instead of fighting and arguing. I never even bonded with anyone but Lincoln and Lana." Lincoln embraced his little sister.

" Me too, only Lincoln ever spent time with me, everyone else pretty much tried to avoid me like the kids at school." Luan agreed sadly, making Lucy and Lana feel ashamed, Lucy also spoke up " Other than Lincoln, everyone else ignored me, and I felt like no one wanted to listen about my problems.", also making her two sisters feel shame," Huh I guess Linky was the only link that kept this mess of family together. Get it?" Luan lightened up a bit.

"That`s right, but it doesn't have to continue on like that, we might have lost a lot, but we still have each other here and we should appreciate that by spending more time as a family.", "Yes we need to play together, to be a family!" Lana shouted excitably, Luan and Lucy looked at each other and then back again " But how? We`re just so different and we have so little in common..." Luan said solemnly. "I`m sure we have more things in common than we realize, we just have to look for it, like for example you, me and Lucy, we all get ostracized by our peers, because they want to label us a freaks. So why let bullies like Taylor or Kathleen or Chandler have the satisfaction of seeing us down, if they want to see the world turn their backs on us, then let us turn our backs on them. We have each other, and if there's one perk to having a big family, then it's the knowledge that you'll always have friends, who's loyalty and support will always be unconditional and who will accept you for who you are."

" You're right Lincol, but what could we do together? Luan said cheering up, "Well me and Lana thought about going to the zoo tomorrow, maybe you two would like to join us." Lincoln invited them, " Sure, I like animals, I always wanted to see the monkey exibit." Luan agreed happily, "And I heard about the house for nocturnal creatures. Wicked." Lucy flashed a small smile.

"Great now we can...say Luan what's that climbing up your shirt? Lana suddenly pointed out, puzzled Luan looked down to see something small, black and furry climbing up her shirt on all fours, with folded wings. Luan screamed in terror causing the small animal to jump of and spread it's wings, and it quickly flew into Lucy`s lap " Fang I told you stay hidden." she scolded him, "Wow you brought your bat here!" Lana ran over to gently pet him, while Lincoln and Luan tried to shake of the shock. "What the heck Lucy, I thought you let him loose in the woods. Dad said that pets weren't allowed in this building." Lincoln scolded her.

"I did, but he kept following me back, he even followed me to our new home, I tried making him leave, but he kept squizing his way in trough the window." Lucy defended herself, "Lucy dads gonna flip out if he sees him here, you have to get rid of him." Lincoln tried to reason, but Lana looked at him sadly " Come on Lincoln he followed us all the way here, plus if he feeds himself outside then he`s not really a pet. Dad doesn't have to know." she pleaded and was joined by Lucy, and Lincoln gave in "Alright, I guess he would be of no harm, plus this place does have a bug problem."Thanks Lincoln." Lucy said with a smile, when Lana ran into her room and brought back a glass full of living cockroaches, grossing her siblings out as she picked a life one in her fingers to offer it to Fang who was chirping excitably...

 **And Lincoln is making up with Luan and Lucy, but now it`s time to face the difficult sisters, Lynn and Lisa certainly won't be easy to deal with, though Lisa has started to show signs of remorse. And need we forget, Lincoln`s name is still on the bullies hit list.**

 **And I certainly had a lot of fun with that first scene of Lincoln trying to shelter his little sister from the harsh reality of nature, sorry about insinuating that Hops meet a gruesome demise in the jaws of a pike. The part with Fang was a very recent afterthought that came to me just yesterday and I decided why the hell not, they could keep at least one pet, and bats are pretty I found it rather troublesome to write Lisa, given that this is supposed to be a grounded and realistic story, and she's well not a very realistic character.**


	4. Pride Is Ones Worst Enemy

**Pew, I`m sorry it took so long to update this new chapter, but between real life problems, a creative block and me getting ill for a few days, it slowed down the process considerably.**

 **Another problem I was faced with was writing Lisa, since this is a fairly grounded story and she as a character is...well not, and this chapter is partially about her getting redemption, and some people might find her scenes iffy, if so I'm sorry, but this part was always challenging for me to write and was further more done under challenging conditions, I just wanted to get it over with. Also this chapter involves a fairly brutal fight and well if you're someone who doesn't take kindly to Lynn, you might enjoy it.**

 **Also I noticed a problem when I upload chapters, that being certain words from the original text getting erased, I`m still a novice so please if you know how to fix that bug, tell me in the reviews.**

" Ow...ow...ow...ow..." Lincoln kept squirming as Lucy rubbed some medicated cream over his bruises "I know it hurts Lincoln, but this will help you heal faster." the little goth assured him as she finished rubbing it over all of his bruises, though Lincoln, like every patient, couldn't help but understate the severity, or maybe he just didn't want to look like a whimp " I told you it's not so bad, they'll probably be gone in 2 days max.". On the other side of the couch Lana was petting Fang and still felt worried about her brother "It is that bad, I saw how those bullies were hitting you...maybe we should get you to a hospital." Lana stated naively, "She could be right..." Lucy added "...you may have broken ribs, internal bleeding, hematoma..." she kept listing morbid forms of internal trauma which made Lana gasp in fear, Lincoln rolled his semi-amused.

" No need to worry girls, if I had any of that stuff I would have felt it by now, it's just some bruising." he assured them, much to Lana`s relief. "Lana?" Lucy suddenly called her, " Yeah?" "The way you stood up to those bullies, that was pretty cool." Lucy sounded as reserved as usual, but still showed clear admiration, however Lincoln cut in with a slightly harsher tone, "Yes but it was also foolish, that Lyla nearly hit you, I don't want you try this kind of stunt again, promise?" Lincoln`s stern tone quickly melted into one of worry, " Sure, unless I see someone hurting you again." Lana boasted, missing the warning her brother tried to give her, Lincoln sighed, yet felt a bit proud, Lana was still a little spitfire no matter what. " And besides that's nothing"...Lana added humbly "...you should have seen Lincoln giving Lisa a piece of his mind, thanks to him she won't try those stupid psi...cosmo...logy tests on us again.".

" Sigh.I wish I could stand up for myself like that." Lucy spoke solemnly, Lana and Lincoln exchanged sad glances, " You can Lucy, you just have to try. Everyone has the courage to stand up for themselves.", the goth felt like Lincoln was just trying to lift her spirit " Thanks for the pep talk, but we all know that I'm too weak and sensetive to do that.", "Lucy that's not true!" Lincoln raised his voice " I know it because I thought the same about myself, yet when I had my limits pushed I finally stood up to not just Lisa,but to Lynn as well." Lucy was amazed "You stood up to Lynn?" she asked meekly, " I did, just yesterday. I told her that I wasn't going to her stupid game and just told her what I thought about her..." Lincoln`s face became grim as he thought about Lynn..." And yes she kicked a soccer ball into my face, but she didn't try anything else to convince me otherwise."

"That`s just like her. Everything has to go her way, and she can't even handle criticism." Lucy blurted out in a surprisingly angry manner, catching her siblings of guard, " Lucy,do you have a problem with Lynn?" Lana asked as the goth started shrinking back and looking away, " It's alright Lucy, if you have something on your mind you have every right to tell us, we`ve done a lot of that today anyway." Lincoln was trying to get his sister to open up and it was working, slowly Lucy built up the strength to speak her mind " I was her roommate for 2 years and to be honest I hated it. I always found her annoying, she's so loud and would never give me piece, with her balls were always flying across the room all the time and broke a lot of my stuff, I had to repair Edwin twice, and even at night I would have struggle falling asleep because she would always bounce a ball of the wall while in bed..." Lucy became quiet for a moment "...but worst of all is her attitude, she's so thoughtless and inconsiderate, she thinks her lifestyle is the one and only, she made fun of me for the things I do, she said that ghosts didn't exist and that my ceremonies to talk to them were a stupid waste of time, she tried to chase Fang out because she thought he bite her and suck her blood,even though I repeatedly told her that he only ate bugs, when she found my collection of Princess Pony commics she threw them away claiming I was better of without it, just anytime that she made me upset she would just brush it of as just playing or not even bother to notice it at all. I`m sorry if that was mean, but I had to say it.".

" No Lucy, you are absolutely right, Lynn is very stubborn, brash and inconsiderate and she owes you an apology. I know because I had to bear the brunt of her pig-headed attitude a lot. Where is she anyway?" Lincoln wondered, "I think she was sleeping over with one of her teammates and was practicing for some kind of tournament all day, I don't know for what though." Lana helpfully chimed in. Lincoln rolled his eyes " Figures, she's on so many girl sport teams who can honestly keep track of all the crap she's involved in." he looked back to Lucy " But when she returns I want you to tell her what you think of her, and don't worry the rest of us will have your back.". Lucy smiled at her brothers support, before Luan returned from the kitchen, carrying a soda bottle. She pored it into the 4 glasses ontop of the small table they brought in as they prepared to watch tv, Luan the n went back to the kitchen and returned with the popcorn they`ve been preparing.

" Are you sure you all want to watch the ARGGH! hour long special, we don't have to watch it if you girls don't want to.", "Lincoln don't play humble now, after what you've been trough you deserve this." Luan told him happily " And tomorrow we're going on field trip to the zoo, all for our courageous little hero there.", Lana blushed slightly at the compliment before adressing her brother "Yeah bro, spending time with you always makes me happy.", "I don't appreciate watching my friends being hunted and persecuted, but I take solace in the fact that eveything in that show is fake and staged." Lucy said monotonously while giving her brother a small smile.

" Yeah spending time as a family is what's important...by the way where's Lisa?" Luan suddenly realized, however the mentioning of her name did not sit well with the rest of the siblings, "What about her?" an agitated Lincoln asked, Luan was surprised by his sudden harsh tone " I just thought about getting her to join us, after all this is supposed to be a family event." Luan pointed out innocently, Lincoln sighed " Don't bother with her, she couldn`t care less about her family and would probably prefer to work on whatever experiment she`s currently working on.", "But you said how we should stick together us a family, but now you want to exclude her?" Luan questioned, sounding shocked, " That's the thing, she only cares about her precious science, she doesn't care about her family because in her words indulging herself with petty human emotions would only hinder her on her academic exploits." Lincoln explained bitterly, " Lincoln I`m sure you're exaggerating..."

"No he`s right!" Lana interrupted her, Luan saw the little tomboy crossing her arms and scowling at her " Lisa`s just a killjoy and big meanie, I say let her rot in her room.", "Lana`s right..." Lucy added quietly "... her soul is cold and filled with apathy, I don't want to see her or her cruel experiments." the goth stated, surprisingly ARGGH! special started, taking away the younger siblings attention, Luan stood there feeling conflicted, her siblings were actively going against the thing that they agreed upon a mere hour earlier, yet to the 13 year old comedian it was evident that Lisa must have gotten into some kind of argument with them, remembering how she was supposed to the responsible one she thought it was her duty to resolve this fight. "Em excuse me, but I...have to get something from my room, I`ll be back in a moment.", after excusing herself Luan headed to the younger sisters shared room, who's door was surprisingly left slightly opened.

"Knock,knock." Luan joked as she entered, but got no response and surprisingly Lisa was laying motionlessly on her bunk, looking up, "Eh you're supposed to say : "Whos there?" " Luan tried to get a response out of her. "Could you please spare me your futile attempts at humor." Lisa finally spoke, sounding even more droning than ever before, "I don't think your in a position to judge someone's sense of humor sis, cuz you don't have one! Get it." Luan chuckled but was as usually met with silence, causing her to sigh " _I give up..._ " she thought before sitting next to her toddler sister "Do you want to talk?", "And what would be the topic of the discussion?" the 3 year old genius asked apathetically.

"Well call it big sisters intuition, but between Lincoln, Lucy and Lana being obviously mad at you and you looking very upset I would be inclined to assume that there was some fight between you guys.", Lisa still didn't budge " We did have some disagreements, caused by their refusal to cooperate in my psychiatric studies, but I'm pretty certain that this was not the cause of my current lathargic state and the mental and physical turmoil that has engulfed my body, I`m trying to figure which disease correspond with these unusual symptoms...hey!" Lisa protested as Luan lifted her up and placed her on her lap, before lifting the toddlers glasses up, only to see her little eyes being bloodshot and several shiny lines on her face indicating tears.

"Lisa your "disease" is sadness, a common occurrence in people who have gone trough upsetting experiences making them unable to feel joy and happiness." Luan tried to make a joke but her concerned tone nullified that attempt, the child prodigy placed her spectacles down to hide her teary eyes " Implausible, that theory (sniff) hinges on the notion that I indulged my mind with human emotions (sniff)...and that would go against my basic nature." , "Then how we're you crying?" Luan gently stated the obvious, "The only logical conlusion is that I have contracted some form of eye infection that is making me loose my volition with my tear ducts." Luan was starting to get frustrated with Lisa`s denial, so she did the only thing she could, she embraced Lisa in hug, upon hearing her muffled protests Luan gave her an answer " I`m curing you of your illness, when someone`s sad they need a hug.", to Lisa the experience felt jarring at first, but it soon became more comforting and inviting, for once Lisa didn't overthink things and just followed her basic instincts and remained in her big sisters embrace.

"And an additional cure is telling others what's bothering you." Luan tried to coax her into opening up, but was met with the same "disease" argument again, so she tried a different tactic, to make Lisa recount all the psychological data she had gathered about her family in order to distract her mind from her ailment, which worked and had Lisa reveal everything including the rather shocking conclusion of Lincoln threatening her with a spanking.

"Lisa isn't it obvious to you?" Luan finally spoke "You`re feeling guiltily over what you have done to your sisters and then Lincoln finally knocked some sense into you regarding your faults and your feeling even more guilty now." Lisa was about to say something but Luan shushed her "Please don't give me that "above emotions" crap, you're a human, not a robot, and a 3 year old girl at that, you can't avoid feeling emotions, and now the only way to rid yourself of those negative, sickening emotions is by replacing them with positive ones, by apologizing to the others and proving to Lincoln that you aren't the soulless robot you made him think you are."

"How do you expect me to regain their trust when they made it clear that they don't want to be in my presence. I heard their very words" Lisa pointed out surprising Luan, the genius cocked an eyebrow " Am I believe that you're suprised? You do realize that we inhabit a small apartment and the only "wall" between me and the living room is a 2 and a half inch wooden door, which wasn`t even closed, enabling me to hear everything from you and Lucy being ostracized by your fellow hominids to Lincoln getting brutalized by a pair of barbaric cretins." 

" And what did you think when you heard those things?" Luan asked her carefully, the 3 year old didn't need much time to give her an answer "My first though was to invent some kind of cross species mutation serum to regress all those tyrannical barbarians back into the deplorable sewer rats that they are, but to my misfortune I found out that our current data in the research of genetics hasn`t been perfected to that level...yet." Lisa explained while sounding surprisingly enraged, Luan started laughing confusing the genius "My I enquire what's so amusing?" she asked dryly, "What's so funny is that you already proved Lincoln wrong, you do care about your family, but hurting their tormentors won't prove your point, you need to prove it to your own family.".

Lisa crossed her arms "This whole emotion thing is a lot more elaborate and frustratingly complicated than I ever thought, I can't fathom how so many simple minded people can grasp it.", "It`s not Lisa..." Luan said kindly "...you`re just overthinking things, when you should just loosen up and let your emotions guide you.", " And how on Earth do you expect me to do that task, when I can't even comprehend it's basic elements." an agitated Lisa asked , "Baby steps little sis,and I told you how you can start..."

"Luan where have you been, you missed the entire show and it was actually pretty cool." Lana suddenly bursted into the room, followed by Lucy and Lincoln, the boy quickly looked at Lisa with a disapproving glare, but remained quiet, not so much the case with Lana "Hey what are you doing with that stupid jerk-head!" the 5 year old tomboy angrily shouted, Luan held one hand up defensively "Guys please calm down Lisa has something to tell you.", "Oh this ougtha be rich." Lincoln snarked while crossing his arms "I`m serious Lincoln let her speak." Luan warned him sternly before placing Lisa of her lap and giving her a gentle push towards her siblings "Come on now." she encouraged her.

As she was faced with disapproving glares Lisa actually felt nervous, but eventually found her voice "My dear elder sisters and brother, I would like to make a formal apology to all of you in regards to my mistreatment of you, I realized that I was being thoughtless and inconsiderate and I hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, and I'll try my very best to try and change my ways.", upon hearing this Lana and Lucy exchanged glances, feeling conflicted, however Lincoln seemed unmoved, but before he could say anything Lana embraced Lisa in a hug "Apology accepted. I don't like being mad at people and I just want my family to be whole again." the tomboy said sincerely, Lisa felt surprised by Lana`s sudden reaction and yet having her forgiveness made her feel like a weight was being lifted of her shoulders. "I`ll try my best to contribute to that." she assured the tomboy while growing a weak smile.

Lucy was hesitant, but then slowly moved in to join the hug "The spirits told me that forgiving someone releases your soul from being consumed by darkness, and I don't want to feel hate towards my own sister." Right then inner pain that Lisa thought was from an illnesses was steadily disappearing. But then she looked at Lincol who remained where he stood, looking conflicted on how to respond to this. Luan moved over to him "Well Linky, how about you?", Lincoln looked at his youngest sister, a look of confusion evident on his face, but then he finally spoke.

"I`m sorry, but I can't, I`m not convinced that you'll change your ways.", Luan wasn't expecting this "Lincoln she already apologized, what more do you expect?" she tried to reason with him, but the boy was unwilling to buy into potentially just another empty promise "To prove to me that she really means it, until then I can't take her word for it." he said firmly and with that he headed back to the living room to watch tv. The sisters saw Lisa looking down at the floor, looking dejected, Luan kneeled down to her "Don't look so down Lisa, he just needs some time, I`m sure that you'll earn his forgiveness in no time.", "Somehow I don't feel so optimistic about it." Lisa said sadly. But then they heard the door being busted open and heard Lynn`s voice exuberantly shouting as usual, Fang flew beneath the bottom bunk to hide after hearing her voice, " _I have a bad feeling_..." Luan thought about the arrival of the jock. As the sisters entered the living room they saw her and Lincoln glaring at each other.

"Oh it`s you..." Lynn addressed him condescendingly, Lincol just glared at her quietly "...so are you finally over being a sourpuss?" she asked him, but Lincoln just turned his head towards the tv, not even bothering to answer her, Lynn grew agitated "Oh so now it's the silent treatment? Fine! Whatever floats your boat." she shouted before going over to the other sisters "Hey guys, are you exited to see me in action tomorrow?" she asked them, her demeanor getting more chipper. The others looked at her in confusion, making Lynn`s happy face drop "What are you starring at? I`m talking about my baseball match.", "Wait didn't you have that yesterday?" Lana asked scratching her head, Lynn frowned further " No that was my soccer match! Did you guys pay any attention to what I was saying all week for crying out loud!"

"Wow there, calm down Lynn, it's just that you attend so many of these sports even that we can't even keep track of it all." Luan said defensively, Lynn huffed "Of course I do, how else do you expect me to nourish my natural talent, I have a big future as an athlete..." Lynn started boasting "...and you all can see me doing just that tomorrow at noon.", "Tomorrow noon?" Luan said "...actually we kind of made other plans for that." she admitted sheepishly, Lynn was taken of guard hearing that "What other plans?" the tomboy asked angrily.

"They all said that they would take me to the zoo." Lana happily revealed their plans, Lynn felt dumbfounded "The zoo?You honestly want to go gawk at some stupid animals rather then go support me when I need you?" she glared at Luan "Please tell me this is one of your bad jokes?", Luan felt a bit offended by that remark but stayed calm "Its not, we`re planning on going there tomorrow, and why does this bother you, we`ve watched you play sports before?", unknown to them that remark hit a nerve with the 12 year old, "Yeah a few times, but otherwise none of you ever bothered to go and give me support when I needed you.." "Well excuse us for having our own lives." Lucy spoke out of nowhere "Pipe down Lucy!" Lynn ordered her "Its not like any of you are so busy that you can't take some time of to be there for me, expect for Lincoln who`s too preoccupied being a butthurt baby." she intentionally shouted the last part for him to hear, Lincoln clenched his fists, but didn't let himself get triggered.

The other sisters felt a tinge of guilt so Luan spoke up "Lynn we`re sorry that we can't be there tomorrow, but try to understand that we're doing this so we can spend time together as a family, besides the fact how our parents divorcing tore us apart in more ways than one, we all had really rotten days today and we finally talked together about our problems, it got really emotional and frustrating, and..." "Oh I get it, because you guys had some lousy day, you all want to go somewhere quiet to talk about your feelings and junk like that?" the athlete accused them , "Its not really that it's..." Luan was interrupted again when the tomboy let out a frustrated groan "Ughhhhh why do you guys have to act like such girls? You're not helping Lincoln by encouraging him to be a whimp!", the boy grew more frustrated, and so did Lucy "In case you failed to notice, we are girls." the little goth raised her voice "And there's nothing shameful about sharing your emotions. Boiling them up on the inside only fuels your frustration and feeds your inner demons.".

" Oh spare me you're vampire poetry Duchess of Darkness, your just a little kid and you don't know anything." Lynn scolded her demeaningly, but the goth didn`t back down "And you're claiming to "know something" besides sport, well your grades don't support that. At least me and Lincoln never walk the tight rope of being held back." , seeing the 7 year old developing a light smirk after having effectively called her big sister stupid made Lynn boil. Noticing this Luan stepped in and pushed Lucy back "Okay girls let's not blow this out of proportions." she laughed nervously trying to ease the situation, "Oh no Luan, if the pale faced shrimp wants to say something, then let her!" Lynn demanded in a challenging tone, Luan tried to keep Lucy quiet, but she spoke anyway "You're nothing but an obnoxious, selfish bully! That's what I wanted to say!", Lincoln turned around surprised, but also feeling proud of his little sister, but then he saw Lynn making a dry laugh.

Then she got defensive "Oh I`m being selfish here? Why can't you just come to watch my match as your family activity?", Luan frowned "Its not really a family activity if you're the center of attention and we just sit on the sidelines.", "Oh but obeying the request of little miss animal lover does count,huh?" Lynn argued aggressively, making the little blonde look down, feeling ashamed, getting frustrated Luan came to her defense "It does, because this is something we can all enjoy together, plus she earned it after what she did today.", "Oh and what did she do? Build the greatest mud castle you`ve ever seen!" Lynn said sarcastically, before grimacing "Meanwhile I`ve been busting my hump for years trying to make my dream come true and none of you give a crap! Some family you are you selfish, spineless hypocrites!"

"Oh you're just full of it aren't ya Lynn?" Lincoln shouted as he walked towards them. "Oh look, someone learned to talk again." Lynn snarked as Lincoln came to her and looked up to face her "Please tell me? When was the last time you did anything for any of us without having some self serving motive? Cuz all I can remember is you throwing your weight around and being a passive agressive bully with no consideration for your families well being." he looked at the others "And if any of you can share some fond memories you had with Lynn, we`re all ears!".

"Well I certainly can't." Lucy was quick to side with her brother, Lisa finally spoke up "No offense Lynn, but I never really admired your passions or your mental prowess.", Lana scratched her head trying to think of any "Dad said we were both tomboys, but Lynn never spent much time with me, she said she didn't like mud or animals or fixing stuff." she admitted, Luan tried to think of any "Sorry, but I draw a blank." she said sadly. "And I rest my case.." he turned back to face the jock "...ya know Lynn I thought an athlete of all people should know that there is no "I" in "team", but I guess you don't.", glaring down at him Lynn finally lost it and pushed him to the floor "Shut up you prissy whimp or I'll..." Lynn shouted before trying to regain her composuser as the others looked at her in shock, "Spoken and acted like a true bully..." Lucy grimly commented, Lynn turned towards them, her face turning red "Shut up! All of you! I`m not a bully and you guys are just ganging up on me! Is it all because you're jealous over me being tough and you all being ain't my fault if you all are too whimpy to keep up with me and act like babies when I play a little ruff with you.", she heard Lincoln laugh at that as he rose up.

"Are you seriously using that excuse now?" he bitterly snarked "You really are a bully, you can't even take criticism without loosing your shit!" Lynn growled "How about I beat the shit out of you?" she charged at Lincoln, but Luan grabbed her arm trying to hold her back, Lucy arrived and stood defensively in front of Lincoln, Lisa came to Lynn holding a small mechanical device "Please don't force me to use my home made taser." the genius warned her in her stoic tone.

Lynn swatted Luan away from her, but she had calmed down enough not to do something she would regret, "Lynn why were you trying to hurt Lincoln?" Lana asked, getting teary eyed and yanking Lynn by her shirt "Becase that's what bullies do! They want to show of and belittle and beatdown on those they view as inferior." Lincoln cried as he moved past Lucy and Lisa to confront Lynn "And like I said I won't give them the satisfaction of seeing me down."

As she was faced with angry, disapproving or in Lana`s case saddened glares, Lynn snapped "I`ve had it with you jerks, if you wanna whine and make fun of me then I`m out of here!" Lynn stormed out of the apartment, as she went down the stairs Lincoln shouted after her "Runnnig away from your mistakes, real mature!","Lynn wait, don't go!" Lana cried going after her, but had her hand grabbed by Lincoln "Forget her. If she wants to be like that let her be." Lincoln said angrily as he led his sister back to the apartment. As Lincoln brought Lana back the siblings spotted their father parking his van trough the window, "Ah dad`s probably going to be very happy to hear about what we`re doing right now." the boy spoke in a more relaxed tone, Lucy joined him and Lana at the window "Yeah, but you must also tell him about your problem.", Lincoln frowned after being reminded of that "Oh yeah sure..." , "Don't worry Linky we`ll all have your back." Luan reassured him, Lincoln in return gave his sisters a thankful smile.

...

Lynn kicked an empty can as she walked down the street , under the sunset ,with her hands in her pockets until she saw and set down on a bench near a playground. " _Stupid brother...stupid,selfish sisters...they gang up on me to let out their frustration, but they`re all equally at fault_." Lynn was still mad, when she got mad, she was mad as hell, but underneath all of that rage she was upset, upset over the things her siblings said about her, what Lincolnn said about her, that her only brother would just turn on her like that, that one word kept ringing in her mind " _Bully...I`m not a bully...not a bully...they`re overblowing things...I`m not a bully..._ " , she kept saying that in her mind, at this point it was as if she wanted to convince herself of that. Then she picked up the faint sound of crying, curious she moved trough the playground until she saw a small concrete soccer field nearby and on it she saw two kids, around 8 or 9 years in age, covering on the ground while a third one was desperately trying to catch his soccer ball which was tossed back and forth by two older boys. Lynn moved in closer.

Taylor caught the ball, "Come now Mike, don't ya wann it back?" he teased the 9 year old before tossing the ball over him and to his buddy who had one hand hidden behind his back, " Please give it back, it's my third one and dads gonna be mad if I loose it too." the boy was begging Lyle who looked at the ball, seemingly in deep thought "True, you do have a bad habit of loosing soccers. Why is that anyway?" Lyle pondered before revealing a jagged rock in his other hand and puncturing the ball "Oh yeah, cuz I keep popping them, must have slipped my mind!". He threw the deflated soccer into Mike`s face, who then held it in his hands as he started tearing up, Lyle rolled his eyes "Oh spare me the water works you big baby" he groaned as he forcefully pushed Mike down, "Yeah it ain't our fault that you whimps can't play some hardball." Taylor laughed. After hearing that Lynn became enraged and made up her mind on her next course of action, " _But you said those same things an hour ago...no I didn't shut up!_ " she started arguing with herself.

"But enough ball play, let's see what treats you brought me today." Lyle hoisted Mike up by his leg and started pillaging his pockets only to find nothing, " They`re empty!" he growled as he let the boy fall back down, "I`m sorry, but my parents won't let me carry money, because you keep taking it." the boy pleaded while Lyle grew increasingly frustrated "You're completely usele..." suddenly Lyle was struck in the back and thrown into Taylor. "Why don't you pick on someone your own age you cowards." Lynn growled ready for a fight, Taylor pushed Lyle of him, as he rose up to look at the girl the younger kids took the distraction to run away.

"Like you dollface? Taylor exclaimed playfully, Lynn narrowed her eyes "Call me that one more time and I'll twist you into a pretzel!" she growled at the bully, "What kind of a lame threat is that ?" Taylor quipped without showing an ounce of fear, in his mind he kept thinking that this girl looked familiar, until he finally remembered a particular family photo which made him burst out into laughter "Can you belive this Lyle, the freakshow was too scared to come for a rematch, so he sent a girl to get his payback." Lynn was confused by that statement and so was Lyle, "Eh I don't geczy? the brown haired boy said dumbly making Taylor facepalm, he grabbed Lyle and whispered into his ear " _She`s Lincoln Loud`s sister, but don't let her know that we know, just in case..._ " "Oh...now I geczy." Lyle finally understood.

"I`m warning ya, stop pestering those kids or you'll face the fury of Lynn Loud." the boys snickered at her threat "Oh come now tuts, there's no need to fight, what did we ever do to you?" Taylor asked sweetly, intentionally testing her, "Nothing, but I don't appreciate douchebags like you brutalizing the neighborhood.", Taylor struggled to keep a straight face, this girl honestly didn't know that they whooped her brothers ass twice already, "She doesn't know it Lyle...she honestly doesn't know " the two boys started snickering which greatly enraged Lynn "What don't I know, tell me!", Taylor found her ignorance more and more amusing.

"That`s for us to know and for you to find out. But seriously now sweetheart you shouldn't be here, this rough neighborhood is no place for a delicate lady like you, so just skip back home to powder your nose and style your hair." Taylor smirked as he saw her enraged reaction, Lynn furiously swung her fist at his face, but Taylor caught it with his hand and twisted her arm, "Uh feisty!" Taylor quipped as he kicked her in the gut and sent her flying for several feet until she hit the hard concrete." _When did boys get this tough?_ " she thought as she winced with pain, "Guess she wasn't ready for the furry of Taylor and Lyle!" "Its fury you dumbass.", as she heard them laugh at her, her ensuing anger quickly loaded her back to full strength.

In the blink of an eye she charged at Taylor, punched him in the gut and had him pinned down, but once she tried to punch his lights out he grabbed her fist and held it back, "Eh a little help Lyle." the black haired boy asked almost jokingly, Lynn was soon hoisted up in a choke hold, but she sank her teeth into Lyle`s arm who screamed and let her go, Lynn swiftly stomped his foot and elbowed him in the gut, she saw Taylor in the corner of her eye and dodged him, causing him to punch Lyle in the gut instead, making him collapse, "Ehh...sorry dude." Taylor blurted out embarrassingly before turning back to Lynn.

They ran at each other and Lynn managed to grab hold of his head, as she held him down she managed to deliver one punch to his gut before Taylor wrapped his arms around her torso and started crushing her in a bear hug, Lynn tried to break free but he proved to be too strong, "What's wrong? Don't all dates start out with a passionate hug?" Taylor snarked before Lynn knocked her head into his forcing him to let her go.

Now sweety and exhausted Lynn was starting to worry, this fight was a lot harder than she expected. Taylor charged at her again, she ducked several of his puches, before she grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards her knee which collided with his stomach, however Taylor grabbed hold of her hand and soon had it twisted against her back, sucking up the pain Lynn kicked the boys shin and in one swift motion decked him in the jaw. Taylor stumbled back, holding his bruised jaws before starting to chuckle and smile at the girl "Nice jab Lindsay, you got some nice moves, but let's see how long they'll help you last."

"The names Lynn, and you haven't seen half of it." she shot back as they circled each other, both sweaty and their faces becoming red, "It will be a plesure to find out, but don't think you can beat me, I rule this neighborhood cuz 1) I`m stronger and (2...I have back up. Lynn suddenly remembered Lyle who, as if on que, grabbed Lynn from behind and held her in a bear hug, Taylor charged and delivered one punch to her gut, but Lynn mustered up the strength to kick him in the chest with her feet and jolt him back, still in Lyle`s grip Lynn made a foward roll with Lyle taking the brunt of the concrete and acting as her cushion, but no sooner was she free Taylor grabbed hold of her pony tail, Lynn screamed as she felt her hair being pulled while Taylor swung her around, loosening her hair tie in the process, "Lyle be ready!" he shouted as he swung her back, her hair tie came of and Lynn found herself spinning around before catching a glimpse of Lyle and immediately after feeling a blow to her gut. As she fell she tried to get up Lyle punched her in the back with both fists, knocking her back down.

Acting quickly Lyle grabbed hold of her legs and Taylor grabbed her arms as they lifted her up, Lynn squirmed as she was carried of, but was soon dropped on the platform of a merry-go-round, "Hang tight doll, this will the ride of your life!" Taylor exclaimed as he and Lyle started spinning the platform until it and Lynn turned into a spinning blurr, "The ride ends once we see ol`faithful blow some puke!" Taylor joked, but soon regretted it as the merry-go-round started squirting vomit in all directions like a garden sprinkler. The bullies backed away causing the thing to soon slow down, Taylor grabbed one of it's handles to stop it, Lynn finally got up, with her long brown hair now looking like a fright wig, she quickly dropped to the ground dizzy and disoriented, with everything around her spinning around or splitting into two, with her unable to fight Taylor picked her up bridal style "Aww the pretty lady got sick, we have to find her a resting place.".

By the time Lynn finally regained her senses it was too late as she heard Taylor chanting in a sing-song voice "A one, a two, a stinks to be you!" with that he tossed her into a dumpster, the foul stench waking her up for good. She heard the bullies high five each other and leave while laughing and making fun of her, this made her blood boil, no way was it ending like this, these bastards would not get the best of her. Lynn pulled herself out of the dumpster, ignoring the gut wrenching smell that now came from her, she yelled after the bullies "Hey you cowardly assholes, this fight isn't over, not by a long shot!".

By the time Taylor and Lyle managed to turn around she was already running at them, "That bimbo still wants more?" a confused Lyle blurted out, "She`s determined, I give her that." said Taylor as the two ran after her, but she suddenly made a turn and ran into the playground "Catch me if you can you ass faced buffoons!" she mocked them, causing them to chase after her. She ran under the monkey bar and lifted herself up, as Lyle lunged at her she delivered one hard kick into his face, knocking down, however Taylor grabbed her right leg from behind and pulled her down. As she hit the ground Lynn quickly rolled on her back, dragging Taylor down as he was still grabbing on, using her free leg she kicked Taylor in the side of his head and slammed it against the bar.

As he clutched his head in pain Lynn got up and delivered a powerful punch to his face, with his cap flying of Taylor collapsed in front of a swing and ceasing the opportunity Lynn grabbed one of it`s seats and lifted it. As Taylor rose up he had no time to move as the swing struck him and sent him tumbling for several feet. Lynn looked at him laying on the ground, she smirked to herself before suddenly being tackled by Lyle. He pinned her under his weight and grabbed her throat with one hand and clenched the other into a fist.

"Say goodbye bitch!" he growled as he swung his fist towards her face, a stupid move as Lynn easily dodged her head making Lyle`s fist collide into the concrete, making a sickening crunch. The boy hollered with pain as Lynn freed her feet and kicked him in the jaw, dislodging one of his teeth. As he feel back Lynn rose to her feet, so did Lyle, but he was clutching his left hand and had blood dripping down from where one of his lower incisors used to be. As he and Lynn made eye contact Lyle`s eyes filled with fear as he suddenly bolted away as fast as his legs could carry him. Lynn stood there triumphantly " _Yeah I beat those idiots, they just got a taste of girl power! My siblings will beg me for forgiveness after they hear how I wooped two local bullies, especially Lincoln, he`s a prime target for these kinds of thugs._ "

But it wasn't over, because then Lynn heard an enraged and almost primeval sounding growl, she turned to see Taylor rising up to his feet, it was almost hard to make out in the dim light of the upcoming dusk, and letting out a downright bestial battle cry, he then turned to her, growling with gritted teeth and his chest rising and closing rapidly to suit his heavy breathing while his eyes, one of which had a visible dark bruises around it, showed pure rage. The sight actually struck fear into Lynn as it looked like she was faced with a crazed animal. But then she narrowed her eyes, showing a look of determination, as Taylor let out another enraged cry before charging at her, Lynn charged at him.

Taylor grabbed her hands, and they wrestled for a moment while hand locked, before Taylor twisted her arms and slammed her body against his colliding knee, he hoisted her up by one hand and delivered a second hit to her gut before throwing her over his shoulder. As soon as she hit the ground she was immediately hoisted up again and received one and then another punch to her left cheek, before being let go. Suking up the pain, Lynn charged at him in blind rage but he dodged her attack and Lynn was pulled back by her hair before Taylor slammed his fist into her back. She fell down face first, and soon felt Taylor`s knee diving into her back as he had her pind down before he started twisting her right arm behind back, Lynn started hissing in pain, but couldn't break free from his grip, then Taylor finally spoke.

"Unless you want me to test the breaking point of your arm`s flexibility you'll admit defeat, with a little begging for mercy for extra flavor." "Fat...chance..." Lynn hissed trying to deal with the pain, but Taylor wasn`t kidding around, he kept twisting it further and further, as the agonizing pain started registering in her mind more Lynn`s survival instinct finally trumped her foolish pride, "Alright I surrender..." she cried feebly, but Taylor didn't oblige, "...mercy...please mercy..." Lynn finally uttered those accursed words, but like a magical spell they finally relieved the pressure on her arm. Once the pain was gone Lynn layed on the ground trying to catch her breath, before she turned around to see Taylor`s shadowy outline looming over her against the dusk sky.

"Well bimbo I hope you learned a valuable lesson...if you mess with the tiger, you get the claws." he said coldly, before kneeling down to her eye level " I kicked your ass twice..." his glare pierced into her "...are you still in the mood for round three?", Lynn couldn't find her voice so instead she just shook her head, Taylor sneered "Thought so." and without saying another word he grabbed his cap and disappeared down the dimly lit alley. When Lynn finally got up, she slowly started walking towards her home while hugging herself, her usual spitfire self no longer seemed to be there, replaced by normal and frightened 12 year old girl.

...

It was 8 pm. when Lynn finally reached the families apartment, given what had happened, she just wanted to slink of into her bed undetected, but as soon as she opened the door she was meet with her fathers angry glare " in the world have you been! Do you know how late is, I was worried sick..." her fathers harsh tone suddenly softened "...wait a minute, how did you get that awful smell? And my god, how did you get those bruises?" Lynn covered her left cheek and started speaking in an uncharacteristically weak tone "I`m sorry dad, it's just...I got caught up with my baseball training and lost trak of time, and...I accidentally hit myself with a bat and fell into a pile of trash cans.", her father pinched the bridge of his nose "Lynn you have to stop being so reckless and callous, look what I it did to you today and next time it could be a lot worse." Lynn looked away feeling terribly ashamed "I`m sorry, I`ll try to be more careful next time." she meekly promised. Being in a good mood after what he heard from his other children (most of it anyway) Lynn Sr. felt willing to let things slide this time, he only told Lynn to clean herself up and told her how the rest of her siblings were in Lucy`s, Lana`s and Lisa`s room reminiscing about their fondest memories, since Lincoln lost his photo album.

Lynn spent as little time as possible in the shower, once she was clean she clothed herself without taking a single look in the mirror. She passed by the younger sisters room and heard her siblings talking, but she didn't stay to ear drop, she went straight to her room, however one of her siblings did notice her. Lynn lied down in her middle bunk, every part of her was hurting, her pride, her body and her sole, she almost wished for the ground to swallow her up and let her die, but then she heard a small voice.

"Lynn you`re back..." Lana exclaimed cheerfully"...you have to come with me and talk to the others, they're all in the next room.", Lynn tiredly poked her head up "I`m sorry Lana, but I'm too exhausted, I need to sleep." the jock spoke feebly, "Lynn are okay? You sound weird. Plus you have to come and make up with the others!" Lynn really wanted to be alone right now, summoning all her will power she forced a smile and a happy voice "Look squirt I`m okay, I`m just really tired from my training and I really need to sleep, I`ll talk to the others tomorrow I promise.", Lana felt something was of, but in the end she respected her big sisters wishes "Okay if you say night Lynn." with that the little blonde reluctantly left, not seeing Lynn curl up and shed tears...

 **And we're done with chapter 4, before anyone accuses me of this, I said this won't be a hate fic or a torture fic and I stand by it, yes Lynn receive a strong beating in this, but it wasn't contrived torture for the sake of catharsis, it's played for realism, Lynn is cocky and brash and decided to give some vigilante justice against the local bullies, but in real life even if you`re tough and know how to trade blows, picking up fights with random thugs can still easily end with you getting your ass creamed or worse...this ain't a DC or Marvel comicverse, likewise "Big Sister Instincts" won't give Lynn an edge either when she inevitably learn that those same bullies had assaulted Lincoln. Ultimately this experience is meant to give her a better perspective on how the world works.**

 **Anyway the posting of new chapters will likely continue with this slower pace, given real life issues and all that, but I'll still try to post new chapters at roughly a weekly basis, no promises though, till next time...**


	5. Lynns Realization

**Well this took a lot longer to write and update this than I expected, sorry to anyone who was eagerly awaiting the next chapter, but you can't rush these things without taking the time you feel you need to properly construct them, otherwise they`ll come out crude and imperfected, either way the story now continues...**

After splashing her face in the sink Lynn finally took a good look at herself in the mirror, her cheek was swollen with bruises, to the tomboy those were pretty much the marks of shame, the testimony of her failure to get the upper hand in a fight, against boys no less. Lynn felt disgusted and disappointed with herself, when she woke up it was already past 9 a.m, she would never sleep in like that, she would utilize the quiet and cool morning atmosphere for exercise, but now she had less than 3 hours to prepare for her baseball game.

She was already dressed in her teams signature cap and uniform and was carrying her bat, yet while dressing herself up she quickly discovered the full extent of her battle damage, more shameful bruises all over her torso that made her body ache with pain, almost like a punishments and mockery for her failure. In fact the excitement and adrenaline she usually felt right before a big game was inexplicably gone this morning, Lynn couldn't believe that her upcoming match suddenly felt more like a laborious chore she had to shlog trough, like homework, but she realized why she felt like that, first of there was the crushing knowledge that no one from her family would be there to support her, even her dad would likely try to get some "me time" during the weekend, and then there was...Taylor, that mere name, the mere mental image of his face and his insufferable, smug grin and attitude made her blood boil, he humiliated her, he beat her, he had managed to reduce her to a scared little girl, Lynn was used to always having the upper hand and experiencing the feeling of fear felt like a crushing blow to the prideful jock.

She didn't know how to live with that, " _You're not going to live with that! You're going to earn your honor back!_ " she heard her own voice scolding her like a coach " _This isn't the first time you faced a loss, and whenever that happened in the field there was only one solution to the problem!_ " , " _To train harder and harder till I best my enemies. That's it!_ " feeling pumped up with new confidence Lynn gripped her bat " _I faced smug and arrogant pricks on the field before, and whenever they beat my team I would motivate everyone to train harder and harder until we wiped the floor with those jerks in a rematch!_ "

As she stared into the mirror she imagined facing Taylor " _Just you wait, you'll regret the day you ever messed with this girl! I`ll train myself until my body becomes a living weapon, in no time I`ll have you and your braindead crony begging for mercy!_ " ,"Lynn you`re awake!" hearing Lana`s voice broke her out of her internal monologue, but the moment Lynn faced her the little blondes face recoiled in shock "Lynn what happened to your face!", Lynn had really hoped that she could slink away before anyone saw her in this sorry state, but that window of opportunity had passed now, Lynn went for the same lie she used on their father while scruffing up Lana`s hair "It`s nothing squirt, I just had a slip up during training and hit myself." she tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, yet her body kept aching with pain, almost like it was punishing her for lying, but Lynn tried to ignore it and change the topic.

Lynn noticed that Lana wasn't wearing her usual overalls, but rather simple blue jeans and a teal colored t-shirt with darker sleeves and with the image of a frog on the front, "Eh are you trying out a new getup?" Lynn asked her little sister who looked at herself then back at Lynn, while never ceasing to smile "Sure, I thought since I'm going to the zoo I should wear something with an animal on it, plus it helps me to honor Hop`s memory!" Lana cheerfully explained as she put her trademark red cap on, but Lynn frowned " _And not bothering to watch my game._ " she thought dejectedly.

"Well if you'll excuse me,I have a game to attend to." Lynn tried to leave, but Lana ran after her "No you have to talk and make up with the others first!", Lynn grew impatient "I`ll talk to them after the game.", she tried to open the door but Lana stood in her way with an angry look "No you promised me you would do it right now!" the 5 year old cried out making Lynn increasingly agitated, she didn't want to yell at Lana so she tried to keep her voice a calm as possible, "Look I have nothing to apologize for, once Lincoln is over his whining and once the girls are done ganging up on me then we`ll talk, but I doubt any of that will happen right now!"

Lana looked at her with saddened eyes "Lynn please stay, you don't understand, Lincoln`s being bullied and..." "Bullied?" Lynn blinked but she didn't sound too suprised, then soon frowned "Oh so that's it then? Chandler and his pals have been making fun of him or pulling pranks on him again, and now his moping around about it and probably expects me to go beat them up!" Lynn angrily accused Lincoln, unaware that he was listening in on them.

"No it's not Chandler,its..." Lana tried to explain but Lynn cut her of again "I don't care what elementary school punk is teasing him, I ain't playing his bodyguard! It's about time that whimp grows a spine and learns how to stand up for himself, sheesh how does he expect to deal with bullies in middle school like I'm about to..." "Oh I have a certain idea..." Lincoln spoke up as he exited his room.

Lynn shot him a fierce glare "We`re you spying on me?" she asked angrily, but Lincoln didn't face her as he walked towards the kitchen "I wasn't..." he calmly stated"...but as Lisa said : when you live in a cramped up apartment with 2 and a half inch wooden doors, no conversion can go in private.", he sat by the table trying to open a box of cereal, "Lincoln please talk with her..." Lana begged her brother, desperate to make her siblings reconcile, Lincoln sighed "Don`t waste your time Lana, there's no reasoning with her, she doesn't even care if her brother`s being bullied.", Lynn clenched her bat with anger "Well maybe you wouldn't get picked on if you acted like a normal boy, instead of being a geek and a freak..." those words ignited anger within Lincoln , but he tried to remain calm "...I tried to get you into sports and teach you to man up for years, but all this time you just slacked of and indulged yourself with all that nerd crap, and now you`re shocked that you`re being bullied?", "Well excuse me for not living up to your ideal standards. I can`t change who I am." Lincoln calmy shot back.

"What ideal standards?" Lynn snapped "Those are the basic standards for being a boy and you can't even get that right! And to think when I was little I was exited to have a brother, but instead I wound up with just another prissy sister." the jock crossed her arms while Lincoln looked back at her before making a soft chuckle "Oh you're just sad Lynn, you try so hard to be one, yet you know nothing about about boys beyond sports and punching each other for fun." "Oh and I suppose the King of Geeks is going to lecture me about it?" Lynn smugly mocked him "Will you stop arguing!" Lana cried out, getting both of their attention, she looked at them with puppy dog eyes pleading for them to make up, but then Lucy entered the living room.

"Ther no reasoning with her Lana..." the goth spoke monotonously as she approached the 12 year old in her pjamas "...she`s just sore than no one is giving her attention and in classic Lynn fashion she throws a temper tantrum.", "Will you butt out of this Lucy!" Lynn snapped at the goth, "I won't, I`m growing a spine as you would put it, Lincoln encouraged me to do that in order to stand up to bullies like you." In an instant Lynn charged at the 7 year old but quickly stopped in her tracks, Lucy started backing of in fear as Lynn tried to calm her nerves before glaring at the goth, "Call me that word one more time and you'll regret it." Lynn hissed at her younger sibling.

Lincoln reacted quickly and grabbed Lucy in a defensive embrace before glaring at the enraged Lynn "Don't tell me you're going to beat up 7 year olds now? Don't you have enough street cred as a bully?" the boy bitterly asked her, Lynn was at loss of words as she tried to catch her breath following her outburst, she looked at the two before looking over at Lana who was starting to cry. The sight of it made Lynn feel guilt, and seeing Lucy in Lincoln`s arms, looking scared of her even more so.

The turmoil of emotions made her snap "I`m not a bully, I did nothing wrong!" she shouted at her siblings "Stop starting at me like that, you're the ones who provoked into being mad!", Lincoln finally spoke up "Well if we all upset you so much why don't you just go to your precious game!","Fine! That's what I wanted to do all along!" the tomboy shouted as she opened the door and stormed out.

"Are you okay Lucy?" Lincoln asked "I`m fine, just a little shaken." she quietly answered, Lincoln looked over towards Lana who was starting to sob, he quickly went over to give her a hug. "Lincoln why won't you guys make up?" she innocently asked him while soaking his shirt with tears, "Becase Lynn isn`t family as far as I'm concerned." Lucy told her bluntly "Lucy don't say such things!" Lana said between sobs, still hugging her Lincoln sighed "Look Lana some people just can't be reasoned with, they're just to stubborn and self absorbed and...", "But..but she`s still our sister..." the blond pointed out "Maybe,but she's my least favorite sister." "Okay that's enough Lucy!" Lincoln said sternly as he tried to calm the situation.

"Listen Lana, let's not let Lynn ruin our day, as soon as Luan and ...ugh Lisa get up we're heading to the zoo, but in the meantime how about we all get some breakfast?", Lana quietly nodded.

...

Taylor was sitting ontop of a wooden box in the middle of an abandoned warehouses, carving a piece of wood with a pocket knife before hearing footsteps, which were easily audible in the empty building, "Ah good to see that you`re back on your feet." the 12 year old boy spoke nonchalantly as Lyle appeared behind him wearing a cast on his left hand, unlike Taylor he wasn't in such a relaxed mood. "Do you think this is funny!" the other boy growled "I broke my arm all because of that freaking bitch!" ,"Calm down there genius, I wasn't making fun of ya..." Taylor remained unfazed as he turned to look at his friend who's face was bruised, as was his own, "Besides, you known why I called you here, it seems we have a little problem with the Louds.", upon hearing that name Lyle gritted his teeth and started breathing heavily, only to produce a whistle trough the gap in his teeth, which made Taylor snicker.

"You`re right on that! Those freaks humiliated me, they need to be taught a lesson!" Lyle exlaimed viciously "The moment they messed with us they signed their death certificates!" "Wrong answer, we ain't going after them." Taylor told him as he jumped of the crate and approached Lyle who looked dumbfounded "You gotta be shiting me, you want to let those freaks get away with what they've done!" Lyle pointed his finger at Taylor who grew a look of annoyance and pushed Lyle`s arm away "No you numbskull! But to attack them now would be a very stupid idea." Lyle grew more irritated "What the hell do you mean! We just grab the pipsqueak and the bitch and beat the crap out of them!" Lyle furiously stated, like his idea was the most obvious course of action, Taylor groaned.

"Don't play dumber than you already are, you know exactly what happened, their clown haired father has been asking around about us, it seems Lincoln is snitching on us.." Taylor balled his hand into a fist showing tranquil frustration, "And what about that Lynn bitch?" Lyle pointed out, Taylor looked at him and smirked "Oh not her, I can tell that she isn't the type to come and cry to mommy and daddy about getting a few boo-boos, but the snowy haired pipsqueak clearly is..."

"So what do you propose we do to make that dweeb keep his yap shut." Lyle punched the palm of his hand, "Not do anything brash or stupid, that`s what." Taylor explained as he seated himself back up on the crate, a frustrated Lyle ran in front of him "So you're just going to let him get us into trouble!" Lyle yelled at Taylor who in return glared at him with annoyance "Cuz if you're going to be coward then screw you, I`ll take care of those freaks on my own!"

"Noooooo pea brain, I know how we're going to deal with that tattle tale..." Taylor spoke calmy and slowly, like he was trying to explain something to a toddler, but struggled to hide his frustration "...but my plan will require you to sit back at home and relax, while I go and talk some sense into the freak.", "You want him all to yourself when you beat him up? Not a chance!" Lyle snapped at him, failing to see what his friend was getting at. Taylor was at the end of his patience.

"Will you shut your trap and listen!" he suddenly snapped, making Lyle go quiet, seeing that his friend was finally all ears Taylor started explaining " We ain't in any trouble yet, it's his word and that of a toddler against ours, most kids in the neighborhood won't have the guts to vouch for him anyway, and our folks shouldn't be a problem either, my parents are always too preoccupied to ever bother noticing what I`m up to, and your parents still think that you`re a perfect little angle and as long as you keep your poker face they'll be none the wiser..." after hearing that Lyle smiled a little "You're right, my mom would never turn on me, she would never trust some clown haired fruitcake over her own son." but then he looked back at his cast and grew angry once more, remembering everything from Lincoln kicking him in the gonads to Lynn breaking his arms and knocking his tooth out.

"But they still need to pay for what they have done..." the brown haired boy said bitterly, Taylor groaned, they were back to square one "Lyle this isn't the time for petty grudges, this is a situation that has to be handled carefully, as in by me, not you, remember who's the brain of this duet?", "Eh wut?" Lyle asked in confusion making Taylor smirk "My point exactly.", Taylor jumped of the crate "And I can't risk you doing anything stupid, there for you stay at home and lie low while I go and take care of Lincoln.", Lyle was getting frustrated, Taylor was ordering him on what to do and it didn`t sit well with his own plans, "And how do you expect to find him?" he suddenly asked, Taylor shrugged "Easy, just before I got here I got hold of some ankle bitters in the park and they told me how they spotted the freakshow family heading to the zoo, I`ll be waiting for them once they come out." ," _The zoo_..." Lyle made note of that.

"Great coincidence by the way, I enjoy visiting that place..." Taylor mentioned with subtle enthusiasm before looking up the time on his phone "...now if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to.", Lyle watched him leave, feeling a tinge of eagerness as he thought about his own plans, Taylor turned back to face him one more time "Remember what I told you, stay out of this and let me handle it, got it!", "Fine, whatever you say Taylor, I`ll trust you on this." Lyle said, sounding annoyed, but obedient.

Feeling satisfied Taylor smirked as he left the old warehouse, however Lyle had already made up his mind to ignore everything that Taylor had told him.

...

The siblings had entered trough the zoo gates, the place was filled with people and animal noises, "Thank you guys so much for bringing me here!" the little tomboy thanked her brother "Not a problem Lana, anything for our little hero.". Although the other siblings only thought about relaxing and enjoying themselves at this place, but for Lana she always wondered in the back of her mind about how Lynn was doing and hoped that at least she was victorious at her baseball match. Unfortunately she wasn't...

A few hours later Lynn was walking away from her big game with loud voices shouting after her, however they were not thunderous cheers and applauds. "Way to choke out there Loud!" "Who put you on this team anyway you klutz!", Lynn, frustrated and disheartened, tried to block out the angry complaints from her team mates as she rushed away from the scene of her embarrassing performance, she sort of already knew that she wasn't in the right physical and emotional state to play, but things turned out way worse than she could ever have expected, she fumbled trough the entire game like an inept amateur and her bumbling played a big part in them loosing the game, her team was mad at her, her coach was disappointed with her as were her fans, at least those who didn't laugh. Once again Lynn hated herself and wished that she could just spontaneously vanish, however right then she saw her father and his van stopping right in front of her, "Hello Lynn, do you need a ride back home..." his cheerful tone dropped once his noticed his daughter`s sour state "...eh is everything alright?", though he had pretty much deducted the answer already.

"No it's not, we lost!" Lynn threw her arms up "All because I chocked like a freaking amateur and cost us the game, and now everyone hates me!", after her brief rant the 12 year old climbed into the van and seated herself in the far back, crossing her arm and hunching down "Just take me home so I can lie down in my bed and rot away." she mumbled quietly. Her father sighed, having Lynn depressed after loosing a game was never a pretty sight, he knew that he probably wouldn't see his athletic daughter in a good mood for a while as he turned on his van to get her back home where she would no doubt sulk for the rest of the day.

...

"So why did Lincoln and Lisa have to take Lucy to the barber shop?" Lana questioned Luan as the 13 year old held her hand and led her towards their home, "Well Lucy wanted to get her hair trimmed...sort of, I guess she's taking my advice about not hidding from the world, and well she needed someone older like Lincoln to escort her." the teen explained, "Oh okay...but why did Lisa go with them? I told her that I wasn't mad at her anymore." Lana wondered if their youngest sister was still holding a grunge against her, a crestfallen Luan assured her that this wasn't the case "She`s just trying to be with Lincoln as much as possible, she's still yearning for his forgiveness, probably a lot more then she wants to admit."

"Oh...but why do all of you girls think about being with Lincoln the most?" Lana naively questioned, "Well it's like you said Lana, most of us feel the most connected to him, not so much with the rest of our sisterhood.", the 5 year old perked up "But we're fixing that now! And look now you and me will have sister time for ourselves..." Luan smiled at her wide eyed excitement "...and you know Luan, when you're not cracking jokes, you're really fun to hang out with." Lana meant it as an innocent compliment, but Luan`s face went dour "Geez thanks..." the teen thanked her half heartedly "...on dads behalf I`ve been trying to be less jokey and more of a responsible older sister."

"Well you're much better at it then Lori, you never act like a bossy, stuck up killjoy who treats the rest of us like slaves." Luan had to chuckle at Lana`s comment, she knew Lori did a lot more than just being bossy and demanding for the hell of it (usually), the siblings had to be kept in line, but it still meant a lot to her to hear it "Well you know what they say : happy workers give better results." Luan joked as they shared a laugh, "And still you may be the oldest, but you don't act like that makes you better and you're never embarrassed to be with us, you're always cool with it!" Lana happily added, Luan felt fluttered "Okay stop it sis I`m not that cool.".

"Well you're a lot of things Freakazoid, but you're definitely not cool." said a feminine voice with a light Valley Girl accent, Lana stopped as she noticed her sister haulting dead in her tracks, she turned and noticed a group of girls around Luan`s age sitting in an outdoor coffee shop, all holding and texting on their mobile phones while snickering at the Loud sisters direction, Lana grimaced in disgust at how "girly" they were all dressed, complete with make up and painted finger nails, she saw Luan looking in the oposite direction, shaking and her eye`s twitching, "Luan who are those girls?" she asked in concern "No..one important..." a tense Luan spoke trough clenched teeth "...let`s go." she urged Lana to keep going, but the brunette with the long blown out hair smirked deviously in their direction.

"Luan I`m hurt, I haven't seen you in months and now you're ignoring me..." her voice sounded very sweet to Lana, yet something about it sounded wrong "...are you still mad about that fake love letter from Benny, like it wasn't my fault that he was creeped out by your advances and told you to keep your distance. You did manage to make the rest of the school laugh though, on our last day before summer no less, isn't that what you always wanted?", her tone was taunting and Lana saw Luan boiling with rage before she finally turned and stormed towards the girls.

"You think that humiliating me and hurting my feelings was funny Kathleen!" Luan yelled with pure, unhinged rage, watching from a distance Lana couldn't believe what she was seeing and felt a little scared, Kathleen meawhile didn't bother tearing her eyes away from her text messages before "whispering" to her friends "Stay calm girls and don't move a muscle, I think it has spotted us. But don't worry I`ll shoo it away.", she smiled at the comedian in a smug and taunting way, which made Luan`s skin crawl.

"Luan it's been ages, how's my favorite victim doing?" she scanned Luan clothing with one look "Still dodging the fashion police I see?", her friends all snickered while Luan clenched her fists "Oh it's been the greatest 3 months of my life, mainly cuz I didn't have any vile bitches like you polluting the air and giving me ear rape with your shrill whining!" she said venomously.

"Uhhhh looks like someone's developing a potty mouth. Will that be your new "comedy" act : Squirrel Girl the foul mouthed sailors?" Kathleen snickered when one of her friends spoke up " No, she`s trying to become a kid entertainer, I heard how she performed at my little cousins birthday, just yesterday." , "Really Jenny?" Kathleen sounded intrigued "Well congratulations Tin Teeth, you finally did something right, making money of your one natural talent : making a fool out of yourself."

Luan narrowed her eyes "At least I`m mature enough to make my own money, unlike some privileged brat who relays on daddy showering her with money!" "Yeah it's sure rocks to be me." Kathleen said dreamily "...my family has all that we need, while we leave menial labor to low class bums like you." Luan`s face was turning red, but Kathleen pressed on "And speaking of family, I heard some not so nice rumors about yours?", Luan blinked in shock while her rival smirked, knowing that this would get under Luan`s skin.

" Heard you're parents had a nasty divorce after you and your fellow spawn blew the house up, not just that but that you, your sisters and your doofy brother all acted like spoiled and entitled brats who drove your parents of the deep end until they couldn't take it anymore. And if they enjoyed your pranks half as much as our class mates do then you probably played a big part in it." Luan had a nervous and vacant look, unable to speak, Kathleen smirked knowing she had her trapped. "That`s...not true...those are lies." Luan stuttered, feeling cornered and unable to argue.

"Oh then why did they divorce?" after a prolonged silence Kathleen grew a downright ecstatic smile "Knew it! You drove them nuts till they divorced." she shock her head disapprovingly "Shame on you Luan, what kind of a thoughless daughter ruins her own parents marriage?", "Yeah how can you live with yourself?" Jenny chimed in, as did another member of the pose called Amber "If I were you Loud I would run away and never dare face my parents again!", Luan started shrinking back, tears forming in her eyes, Lana watched the whole scene and after seeing Kathleen`s sadistic smirk she could no longer just stand by.

"Leave her alone you jerks!" Kathleen was snapped out of her amusement and looked to see Lana glaring up at her "Awww aren't you a cute little boy." she gently petted Lana`s head "Are you another poor kid who has to suffer Luan`s brand of comedy on his big day" she shot Luan a mocking glare, who in turn became enraged again, suddenly Lana forcefully shoved Kathleen`s hand of her "I`m a girl! And I'm her sister!", the other girls all jumped back and cringed in horror at that statement "A girl? Who on Earth forced you to wear those hideous clothes?" Kathleen sounded utterly appalled, Lana shock her fist "That's not your business! But you'll leave Luan alone or I'll..." the little tomboy finished her threat by kicking the teen in her shin, making her let out a shrill scream, Luan was completely gobsmacked by what she saw.

"You little brat!" Kathleen growled while clutching her leg, but Lana was already coughing up a massive spit ball and quickly hit her target in the bully`s lovely face, she let out another shrill scream making Luan laugh as she grabbed Lana by the arm. Kathleen jumped out of her seat "You two are so dead!" she snarled, "Sorry, but we have to make like a banana and split!" Luan quiped before squeezing her flower which released a cloud of foul smelling gas akin to a stink bomb, which engulfed Kathleen and her group. While they were blinded and coughing, the two Loud sister made a break for it.

"Lana what you did was amazing!" a hypercheerful Luan exclaimed as she dragged Lana away from the scene "It was?" Lana gasped struggling to keep up "You`re not mad?", "Mad? I`m quite the opposite of mad! I`m so happy that I need find you another reward for your heroism! How about we spend the whole day at the park?", "Awesome!" the little blonde shouted.

Meanwhile Kathleen finally cleared out of the cloud only to find her favorite victim missing "You'll pay for this you freak! Even if it's the last thing I do!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, before trying and immediately hesitating to wipe the spit of her face, "Oh those Louds can sure mess up your day.", she turned back to see Taylor leaning against their table causing her friends to back away, "Need a napkin?" the boy snarked as he grabbed Kathleen`s hand and placed one in her other hand, but she jolted back in disgust "Ewww don't touch me you creep and piss of! I encountered enough lowlives for one day!" she snapped at him, but Taylor smirked mischievously "You say the sweetest things Kat,but piece of advice spit does not look good on you.", the girl started shaking with anger "And I have a piece of advice for you Taylor : DROP DEAD!"

Taylor stood up "Sheesh does any girl appropriate chivalry these day, oh well..." he shrugged before grabbing a cappuccino of the table and swiftly spilling it on Kathleen`s blouse, "What have you done you idiot!" , Taylor shrugged "Wut? I thought that the brown sludge would better match your eyes, see ya babe!" he winked before leaving, while Kathleen was screaming after him to clean her dress, but Taylor was already distracted by something else.

Trough the glass of the barber shop, he spotted a familiar patch of white hair, " _How perfect._ " Taylor smirked as he went to wait the Louds out before they came out, completely ignoring the screeching Kathleen behind him "Taylor! Don't you dare ignore me! Come back and pay me for a new dress! Taylor! TAYLOR!

...

" Lynn there`s nothing to be a ashamed about loosing a game, it's just a part of playing sports, it happened to you before and you bounced back from it every time, as long as you just do your best me and your siblings will always be proud of you." Lynn just wanted to be alone, the last thing she needed was one of her dad`s corny and half assed motivational speeches, which just pushed her buttons further. "I don't care about doing my best!" she snapped "I don't care about sports, I don't care about my team, I don't care about anything, I just want to lie down and waste away!" she cried out before curling up and burying her face behind her knees "What's the point of doing sports anymore, I should just quit..." she mumbled apathetically. That line came as a suprise to her father.

"Now sweetie, don't you think you're being a tad overdramatic there?" he asked gently while looking at Lynn in the rear view mirror, only to flinch a bit when he saw her shooting him a glare, "I mean it. What's the point of going on when none of you even care about it?" she asked bitterly, trying to hide the hurt in her voice, "What do you mean?" her father wondered "I was always supportive of your passions, you always had a natural talent for sports and what kind of a parent would I be if I didn't let you nourish it?" her father said in a jokey tone, trying to lighten the mood, but as evident from Lynn`s expression it wasn't working, "I`m having a hard time believing it." she bitterly stated before burying her face behind her knees again.

Her father was starting to worry, something seemed of about Lynn, he knew how sulky she could be after loosing a match, but this time around it seemed more severe, he started recalling how Lynn had somehow managed to bruise her face during training and now she claimes to have failed miserably at playing baseball , like something was keeping her mind distracted from focusing on the game, then he recalled how the rest of his children have been making an effort to spend time together while Lynn seemingly took no part in it. And suddenly things started to add up in the single fathers mind.

"Eh sweetie, forgive me if I`m jumping to conclusions, but did you have any arguments with your siblings?" he saw her looking up at him "I mean there must have been a reason for you being unable to focus on your match, maybe you're upset over something inv...", "Oh I sure am upset at my so called siblings for turning their backs on me!" the tomboy angrily blurted out, and her father quickly got his conformation, he sighed inwardly " _The kids are having another fight, I guess this was inevitable. But I won't let this one spiral out of control, never again_..." he thought with determination, unwilling to repeat his failures as a parent. He had to resolve this as quickly and effectively as possible.

He asked Lynn to tell him her side of the story, which she gladly (and angrily) did, though she made it sound like she was the victim on who her siblings ganged up on, knowing his kids and knowing Lynn the patriarch of the family had little trouble figuring out what had really transpired, he was proud at his children for standing up the way they did, but at the same time he felt embarrassed because it should have been him to give Lynn that scolding a long time ago, " _It`s never too late to fix your mistakes._ " he reminded himself before finally speaking.

"Lynn I understand why you're upset, I know it must hurt to feel ignored..." he saw her developing a hopeful expression and dreaded how he would have to crush her hope "...but at the same time you're not being fair to your siblings." he said bluntly, Lynn blinked in surprise before growing mad " What do you mean I`m not being fair? Did you even hear what they called me? They said I was obnoxious, inconsiderate, selfish and a bully!" "And they're not wrong." Lynn gasped when her father said that, he saw her hurt expression and immediately felt like dirt, but he couldn't go soft on her now, it was for her own good.

"Lynn please don't take this the wrong way, I know that you're a good person at heart, I don't just say this because I'm your father, I say it because it is true, but what Lucy and Lincoln said about you is unfortunately also true.", "Then why are you saying that they`re right?" Lynn asked while struggling not to cry after even her own father had effectively called her a terrible person, her father knew that it was time for a serious talk so he stopped the van at the nearest parking spot they came across, before taking a seat next to Lynn.

"Lynn you need to understand something first, no one is perfect, every person no matter how good they are at their core will always have their faults, just look at your old man for example." he said with a weak smile, dreading the thing he was about to bring up "If you ask any of my friends or even my colleagues at work they`ll probably tell you what a nice and fun guy I am..." he then sighed and placed his palm on his forehead "...yet that same nice guy was a terrible parent who gave you kids too much leeway and was afraid to punish you when he needed to, that was the reason that our home was always shrouded in chaos and that eventually drove our family apart.", he went quiet for a moment after being forced to reminiscent about those awful memories.

Lynn was shocked "Dad it wasn't your fault that happened..." she told him sympathetically before looking down in shame "...it was ours, and we...we still feel terrible about it.", her father placed his hand on her shoulder " But it was my fault, there are no bad children, only bad parents, if I had not been a soft headed coward and disciplined you kids when I should have , our home life would have been much more pleasant and me and your mother would never have divorced. I can't blame her for leaving an incompetent buffoon like me." he admitted solemnly.

"Dad stop it, that's not true!" Lynn cried, but her father looked at her with a feble smile "I`m afraid it is, but I`m currently trying to correct that, that's why I had to become stricter and give out more ground rules at home, I know some of you like Lana and Lisa aren't happy with the restrictions I gave you, but you need to understand that I'm only doing this for your own good."

"And speaking about your own good Lynn, you need to recognize your own faults and keep them in line before they let you do something you`ll regret, like I did." Lynn was feeling speechless, she had being denying those accusation her siblings made about her all this time, but now that her own father, a person she naturally put a lot of faith and trust into, was vouching in for them, reality was finally starting to get trough the jocks thick head and the realization was quite scary. "What`s wrong with me?" she asked him worryingly, seeing that Lynn seemed ready to listen, her father had to tell her the stone cold facts.

"Well you have always been a tough, strong willed and determined girl, both me and your mother always admired that about you, but at the same time you always had a bad habit of being headstrong, impulsive and temperamental and at times even a bit arrogant, I know that these are common traits for an athlete and they might be of good use on the field, but...they`re not the best traits to have when interacting and dealing with people who aren't part of your sports teams...like your siblings and to them your ideals could come of as that of a bully."

Lynn still struggled to accept the harsh truth she was hearing, suddenly she hugged her father who hugged her back and they remained quiet for a time, before she finally spoke "But I don't get it? I never tried to be mean and selfish towards them, I`m not like Lori or Lola?" she stuttered meekly "I know you didn't mean to, but...well when your siblings called you thoughtless and selfish they were referring to the fact that do to your headstrong and impulsive nature you were never good at reading other people and trying to see or understand things from their point of you, you may think that your way of life is the ideal one, which unfortunately is a very insensitive and arrogant line of thinking."

Her father sighed heavily before continuing " Like the way you treated Lucy when you were roommates, you need to understand that Lucy is not only much younger than you but she's also very sensitive, she is not one of your team mates, she's a 7 year old with different passions and from what you have told me it seems that you were actively belittling her for being different and were even trying to make her be more like you, which is not the way a big sister should act, Lucy might even feel somewhat scared of you and the retribution you would give her if she told you off..." Lynn felt like absolute garbag _"You're nothing but an obnoxious, selfish bully! That's what I wanted to say!"_ , that memory kept repeating itself in her head, tormenting her. But unfortunately this wasn't the end of it.

"And then there's Lincoln, now I know that you always had a special fondness for him..." "You do?" she asked making her father chuckle lightly "...of course, I know that for you, being a girl with not so feminine interests, it was never easy living and relating to a big family made out of nothing but sisters, and I remember how ecstatic you were when we finally gave you a brother..." Lynn finally smiled a little at those fond memories, but once again that didn't last for long "...but I believe then you were still disappointed at what you got."

Lynn blinked and pushed herself out of her dads hug "What do you mean with that, I always loved my brother!" she complained, "I meant to say that you are obviously dissatisfied with how Lincoln turned out." her father explained "You wanted someone who could keep up with you and share your love for sports and...well that's not who Lincoln came to be, but I did see that whenever you two were together he was forced into doing whatever you wanted to play or being your practice buddy." her father took on a more serious tone "I`m afraid that wheather you realized it or not, you were desperately trying to shape him up to be the sibling you always wanted have."

Lynn once again was at a loss of words, but she tried to argue "That's not true...I was trying to get him to be more active and not to be a whimp and learn how to defend himself." "And how much success did you have with that?" her father intrigued, already knowing the answer, Lynn tried to make a retort, but ended up staying silent and effectively saying "zero". "Lynn I appreciate that you were trying to help Lincoln, but I'm afraid that those things were always secondary to your real desire to morph your brother into being like you and once again you didn't accept him for who he was." Lynn looked down as more memories started flooding in, _"Well excuse me for not living up to your ideal standards. I can`t change who I am."_ , _"_ _Or what? You'll beat me up? By all means do it, I`m used to it by now, it's a lot more fun than being your "playmate"or bore myself with your_ _ **stupid**_ _tournaments anyway!"_

" I guess Linc always hated spending time with me." she said with remorse, her father gave her a sympathetic look "Now sweetie that's definitely not true, I`m sure Lincoln did enjoy spending time with you, it's just your choice of pastime that he hated." Lynn looked up at him "Look Lynn I don't know how else to tell you this, Lincoln sucks at sports, that's just how it is, sport has never been his strong suit, if you want to spend time with him you should do something that he would enjoy.", "You want me to play video of games and read geek comics?" Lynn sounded shocked, her father raised an eye brow "Well considering how much time he sacrificed trying to make you happy despite hating sports, you might just owe him that." but then he grew a more understanding look "But the best thing you could do is find some activity that both you and him can enjoy."

"But what could that be, if we're so different?" Lynn wondered sadly, her father shrugged "That's something you and Lincoln will have to talk about on your own, and lucky for you he and the girls should be returning home right about now.", he went back to the steering wheel and turned the van back on, Lynn followed him and sat on the passenger seat. Memories of the recent arguments she had with her siblings kept flooding back, and all those things they said about her, which she now had to accept as true. "Dad?" she suddenly asked "Yes.." he answered."

"I...heard how the others were spending time together because they all had bad days, what happened?", her father took on a somber expression "Well they all had an emotional discussion about their problems at school, you know how Lucy and Luan are basically outcasts at school and constantly mocked, and Lincoln isn't exactly spared from that either..." Lynn felt guilty for rarely paying attention to her siblings problems "But did something happen to them yesterday?"

Her father sighed, looking even more solemn " Well Luan took Lucy to a birthday party, and the kids there were very cruel to her until she broke down crying and Lincoln..." her father seemed hesitant to speak while Lynn already felt enraged after hearing about Lucy "...well he had some run ins with two bullies, not bullies from his school, but some seventh graders who gave him at least four heavy bruises..." his voice grew more angry as he spoke, while Lynn went wide eyed and started feeling increasingly guilty over mocking Lincoln about being bullied, but then a realization hit her like a freight train.

 _"Can you belive this Lyle, the freakshow was too scared to come for a rematch, so he sent a girl to get his payback." ,"She doesn't know it Lyle...she honestly doesn't know. ","What don't I know, tell me!", "That`s for us to know and for you to find out..."_

"Taylor and Lyle!" Lynn suddenly growled, her father flinched in surprise "You know those boys?" he asked aloud, Lynn realized what she had said and awkwardly looked at her father, "Well...I..." she stumbled with her words, but her father quickly put two and two together after looking at her bruised cheek again. His mouth went agape in horror, before growing a stern scowl "Lynn! How did you really get those bruises!"...

...

"So...how do I look?" Lucy asked shyly, while avoiding eye contact with her siblings, which was now very evident as her bags were gone without any support from hair pins, "Don't worry Lucy, you look way cuter now, Luan was right that you should`t hide yourself from anyone." Lincoln told her with a smile as he walked her back home, on his other side Lisa was walking alongsides them while observing Lucy`s "new" hairstyle " I would assume dear sister that with your more normalized appearance, which is certain to dispute certain notions among your peers that you're a cyclops or visually impaired, you'll social ostracizing will be reduced by roughly 5 %." , Lincoln shot the toddler a glare, making Lisa feel guilty about saying insensitive things again "Eh I mean you look very pretty, and I pitty any kid who's incapable of seeing that." the genius said with surprising sincerity, " _Well she`s starting to learn I guess_." Lincoln thought with a tinge of optimism.

As the passed an allyway they saw the building that housed their apartment in the nearby distance, " _Not a bad day all things considered_." thought Lincoln, feeling a lot better than he did in a while, but as they continued walking Lincoln suddenly felt a hand grabbing him by the shoulder, forcing him to stop "Ah Lincoln Loud, I`ve been eager to see you again.", that voice made Lincoln`s blood freeze, as they all turned around the girls were meet with a stranger, but not Lincoln "Still using little sisters as a shield I see, and people claimed I was low." Taylor said casually as he glared down on the younger kids, instinctively Lincoln pushed his sisters behind him in a protective manner "What do you want Taylor?" Lincoln said angrily, but his fear was very evident in his voice.

"What do I want? I just want to talk." the bully told him in a faux affable manner, at that moment Lisa moved past her brothers arms and confronted Taylor "So you're the cretinous neanderthal that has been brutalizing my brother!" the toddler said angrily, Taylor was surprised by what he saw, but Lincoln grabbed Lisa and pulled her back"Lisa if you know what's good for us keep your mouth shut." Lincoln hissed nervously at her, "Well she has a fancy vocabulary for a baby, guess all you Louds are a little freakish? Taylor laughed, seemingly not thinking much of the toddlers comment, he then looked at Lucy who was covering behind her brother "And this must be the Ghoul Girl, and whadda ya know? She isn't a cyclops after all!" Taylor snickered while Lucy shed a tear.

Lincoln felt enraged but also powerless to do anything, he then noticed how the older boys face was heavily bruised and he even had a black eye, "Wha..what happened to you?" he blurted out without thinking, Taylor pointed at his own face "Oh this? It's nothing, just yesterday I meet your charming sister, she's quite the looker and spunky too, but evidently not too bright, but either way me and Lyle played with her and unfortunately for her, she ended up as the loser.", this revelation was dropped like a bomb on the siblings, but once the shock wore of it didn't take Lincoln more then a second to realize which sister Taylor was referring to. "You attacked Lynn!" Lincoln narrowed his eyes.

"Attacked her? She was the one who provoked the fight, so we felt obligated to teach her about the hierarchy of this neighborhood." Taylor joked before suddenly grabbing Lincoln by the shirt "But enough pleasantries, you and I need to have a serious talk"...he looked at the sisters "...Pardon me ladies, but I need to borrow your brother." Taylor said "politely" as he dragged Lincoln into the alleyway, Lucy cried from terror as she watched the scene, but Lisa grew an angry look as she pulled out her small, makeshift taser and followed after the boys.

Lincoln was lifted by the collar of his shirt and pinned against the wall, feeling terrified as he was face to face with Taylor who lost all manner of jovialness and spoke to him in a cold and ominous tone " Now listen closely pipsqueak, me and my friends don't appreciate snitches around these parts, so I'm giving you only one warning, back of and keep your mouth shut!", Lincoln was scared, but something inside of him wouldn't let him cover in fear "Then you shouldn't have bullied me!" he snapped back, Taylor was unfazed and drew his battered face closer to Lincoln`s "Don't think that crying to daddy will get you anywhere, I run things here and have plenty of accomplices, no grown up tells us what to do and no kid here will vouch for you. And if you think I'm mean then you`ve seen nothing yet, when my friends cross paths with loose lipped snitches like you they make sure that they they never snitch again, and unless you want to find out how they do it you better keep your mouth shut."

"You`re lying! I never saw you with anyone but Lyle, you`re just trying to scare me!" Lincoln snapped back again, on the inside the threats scared him, but he mustered up all the will power not to show it, "Don't let this jokey exterior fool you Loud, when I mean business I mean business, Lynn found out about it the hard way." Taylor smirked before suddenly feeling something poking him in the leg "Blasted contraption! Why isn't it releasing electric charges!" Lisa lamented as she kept hitting Taylor`s leg with her taser.

Taylor looked at her with dumbfounded confusion before glaring back at Lincoln while pinning him harder against the wall "Don`t take my warning lightly you little turd, you and your sisters have no idea what you're getting into, you freaks can either be just one of many victims or you can be _the_ victims!" with that he threw Lincoln down against the floor "You`ve been warned." Taylor said menacingly before leaving the alleyway. Lucy watched the whole thing from behind a dumpster and covered as Taylor marched past her before running towards her fallen brother.

"Are you alright?" she asked in concern as she helped him get up, "I`m fine." Lincoln sighted dejectedly as Lucy hugged him, he saw a frustrated Lisa tampering with her taser before angrily throwing it into the wall "Acursed piece of junk!" the toddler yelled. When she finally faced her brother seemed ashamed and looked down "I`m sorry I couldn't help you brother." she said sadly only for Lincoln to pull her into a hug "Its okay Lisa I appreciate that you tried." the boy told her compassionately, though doing this still felt kind of akward Lisa didn't hesitate to hug her brother back, though she remained composed on the inside Lisa felt overjoyed that Lincoln no longer treated her with disdain.

"Lincoln do you think what that boy said was true? Are we in danger?" a scared Lucy asked him, after thinking for a moment Lincoln got a determined look "No, he`s just bluffing, he`s trying to intimidate us, but it won't work." he dusted himself of before quickly leading his sisters back home. All the way he felt a conflicting wave of emotions after hearing that the same bullies had targeted and hurt Lynn, although some part of him felt like his sister got what she deserved, for the most part Lincoln felt little satisfaction from hearing those news, he only felt even greater hate towards the bullies now.

Unbeknownst to them Taylor hadn't gone far and was still watching them from a far " _Impressive, that pipsqueak is more savvy and courageous than I thought, guess I'll have to try something else._.." he thought with a mixture of frustration and begrudging respect before leaving.

...

"Just what the hell were you thinking!" Lynn shrunk back on the couch while her father was yelling at there, but the athlete wouldn't stand back to begin scolded and snapped back "Those creeps hurt my brother and pick on kids troughout the neighborhood, what was I supposed to do?".

Her father was fuming, but then started massaging his temples, trying to regain his composure " _Don`t loose your cool,this won't acomplish anything_." he kept telling himself that before glaring at his daughter " First of you didn't even know that those boys had bullied Lincoln." he told her sternly " Secondly what you were supposed to do is tell me or any other adult about what you saw, not try to deliver vigilante justice by picking up fights with random hooligans, all you did was put yourself in danger!", Lynn narrowed her eyes and jumped of the couch and faced her father "There was no danger, I wiped the floor with those boys!" she boasted, but her father was unmoved "The story you told as well as your face say otherwise. Lynn what you have done was nothing short of stupid and dangerous, you`re grounded for a week!"

Lynn was in shock "You're punishing me for protecting others?", "No I`m punishing you for recklessly putting yourself and your brother in danger, now go to your room!" he ordered her, Lynn looked completely livid, but she could do nothing to argue with her father, so without a word she went and slammed the door shut. Her father then plopped down into the couch, his face buried into his hands, what was he supposed to do, first Lincoln has been attacked twice, and now by sheer coincidence Lynn got into a fight and got pummeled by those same kids, he didn't know what shook him up more about Lynn`s story, the brutal physical assault she received or that Taylor kids casual flirting with his daughter while brutally assaulting her, maybe the latter. All things considered Lynn Sr felt glad that he never witnessed that, or else he might now have been in jail for strangling a kid. Right then he heard the front door being opened and Lincoln, Lucy and Lisa came in.

"Hey dad...eh are you alright?" the boy asked, their father sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose "No I`m not, I just had to ground Lynn after hearing what she had done.","So you also learned about our sisters scuffle with those two troglodytes?" Lisa immediately mentioned it. much to their father`s surprise "What? How long have you known that?" he asked them sternly, the siblings exchanged worried glances " We just found out, Taylor stopped us on our way home and threatened me to keep quiet." the boy admitted. As if their father could take another shocking bit of new for today, after this he was positively fuming, for the siblings it was kinda scary to see their mild mannered father loose his nerves like that, but then suddenly the phone rang "Ugh what now?" the father snapped "Huhhhhh excuse me kids...", as he went to see who was calling, the kids looked at the older siblings shared room.

Lynn was sulking on her bed when she saw the door being opened "Lynn are you here?","Lincoln?" the tomboy said in suprise, Lincoln looked at his sister feeling awkward and uncertain "Eh Lynn I want to talk to you?", but before the 10 year old could react Lynn grabbed him in a tight hug and lifted him of the ground "Lincoln I`m so sorry that I was so mean to you!" she apologized while their heads were pressed against each other and Lincoln was being crushed in her embrace. " Ow...ow...ow...ow..." Lincoln kept winching, while Lucy and Lisa looked at the scene dumbstruck "What`s gotten into her?" the goth asked.

"Oh sorry Linc?" Lynn finally let him go, once his feet finally made contact with the floor the boy straightened himself before looking up at Lynn, "Okay this is not what I expected..." he stated awkwardly, surprised by Lynn`s change of mood, "...are you feeling alright Lynn?, the 12 year old stared at her siblings with a look of shame "Guys I wanted to..." she stated sheepishly, but was cut of when they heard their father scream "What!?".

Startled the four siblings rushed out to see their father listening to the phone with a look of utter horror, "Dad what's going on?" Lynn asked worriedly, but their father only lifted his hand up to tell them to keep quiet, they listed and soon enough their father put the phone back down still looking shaken up, "Dad what happened?" a worried Lincoln finally asked...

 **And this chapter has come to an end, again I apologize for the long wait but I have been very busy and had a harder time focusing on the story, I also had to postpone certain scenes I originally planned to include here in order not to make the chapter too long and because they ultimately weren`t very important to the story, but with this finally being posted the story is drawing closer to it's conclusion, obviously Lynn still has some major rekindling to do and they still aren't out of the danger zone with the bullies. Till next time...**


	6. Brother & Sister Once More

**And chapter six is finally up, writing a fan fic is proving to be more and more laborious as it goes on, if there's anything that I truly learned from this experiment is that a) a story seems a lot shorter as long as it's in your head, but once you write it down it's way longer and b) writing fanfics is pretty exhausting and it takes much, much longer than you anticipated, I still can't believe that this one started out in early June and is still going on, despite being meant to be a relatively short and basic story, but I'm definitely aiming to finish this no matter what and thankfully I`m now very close to finishing this. Again sorry for the long wait, but again life has been distracting me, yada yada yada, you know the story.**

 **Last time we ended on a cliffhanger and apparently no one who responded to this had any idea what might have happened to freak Mr Loud out the way it did, which honestly came as a surprise to me, as I thought that it was kind of obvious and easy to guess, but okay. Well now your going to find out and be warned, this will also include a lot of violence, possibly even worse than in chapter four, and a lot less action packed than that one to boot...**

Lynn was alone, sitting on the living room couch and anxiously awaiting the return of her family, who had rushed of to the hospital nearly 2 hours ago. The waiting was killing her, every second felt like an eternity to her, she desperately needed to know if Luan and Lana were alright, but there was little their father could have told them after receiving that phone call from a police officer other than telling them that their sisters had been assaulted in the park and were brought to the hospital. And she wasn`t allowed to come along to see her sisters, that really pissed her of, even under these conditions her father refused to look the other way around about the fact that she was grounded. The combined anger, worry and anxiety were murderous, but the preteen was finally relieved of that once she finally heard the door handle moving.

Although she was prepared to see the worst, the sight was still shocking and gut wrenching. Lincoln came in first, carrying Lana in his arms, her right arm was in a sling while her face was noticeably bruised and slightly swollen. She looked shaken and had her eyes closed, hugging her brother as if she was afraid that someone would grab her and take her away. Lynn instantly rushed towards them, a solemn Lincoln remained quiet as Lynn gently placed her hand on the 5 year old, a look of concern and sadness plastered on her face, "Lana..." Lynn spoke up meekly but quickly lost her voice, Lana opened her eyes, but avoided eye contact with either of them and quietly sniffed.

Before another word could be spoken the rest of the sisters walked in, Lisa and Lucy led Luan into the apartment and her appearance truly shocked Lynn, Luan was as distraught as Lana, but the damage to her face was far worse, the left side of her face was severely swollen and colored purple, down to her black eye which she kept closed, and her right cheek also had a heavy bruise. Lynn noticed how she had trouble walking and held on to her chest like it was aching from pain. Lynn clenched her fists, "Who did this? " she hissed viciously trough gritted teeth, but her siblings remained quiet, "I said who did this to them?" the athlete repeated, even more angrily.

Lincoln finally spoke up, "Lynn..." he said dejectedly "...why don't you and the others get Luan to her room, she can tell you what happened..." he looked down at the shaking Lana "...I`m taking Lana to bed, she had enough grief for today.", "Fine." Lynn said more calmly before gently grabbing Luan`s hand "Come on sis, you need to rest." she told her compassionately as she led her to their room, followed by Lisa and Lucy, leaving Lincoln alone with Lana "Don't worry Lana you're safe now, that creep can't hurt you now." he told her reassuringly as he took her to her room, trying to keep the anger and hatred out of his voice as he thought about her attacker.

...

" Rest assured dear sister, this ice pack will restrict the blood flow to your facial region and minimize further internal bleeding." said Lisa as she placed the ice pack to Luan`s battered face while she was laying on her bottom bunk, while Lynn and Lucy sat on the floor, the latter was quiet as always, evidently shaken after learning what had happened to her sisters, but Lynn wanted answers and she wanted them now, but she was reluctant to try to pry them out of the visibly traumatized Luan, who kept tearing up and mumbling about how it was her fault that Lana got hurt.

"Lisa can you please tell me what happened?" Lynn begged the genius who shifted her focus on the tomboy, her stoic demeanor cracking up from her sadness as she sighed "It was that cretin Lyle." she answered simply, "Lyle!"" Lynn growled as she suddenly stood up, scaring her sisters, "So him and Taylor did this? Those bastards are now trying to cripple freaking preschoolers!", the jock was fuming and Lisa tried to calm her "We have no confirmation that the latter was involved in the assault, unless..." she nervously looked back at the bruised teen "...you Luan would like to recount your encounter in more detail."

"I don't want to talk about it..." Luan cried in a shaky voice, unable to look any of her sisters in the face "...if I didn't take Lana to the park none of this would have happened.", Lynn came closer and grabbed her hand, she looked at her sister with a determined glare "Stop blaming yourself! It's not your fault that you were attacked by that demented piece of shit, and we`re your sisters, you don't have to be ashamed to tell us anything. Like it or not, those 2 bastards have messed with the Louds one too many times and now it's a war, one which they ain't going to win!" she said firmly before looking at the others "You said how family sticks together no matter what, and that's exactly what we're doing now, we have suffered trough so much already and I ain't letting a pair of cowardly bullies make our lives any more miserable!"

She then looked back at Luan with a more compassionate expression "Now please Luan tell us what happened, we need to know.", after a moment of hesitance Luan finally gave in, but she struggled to find her voice as she was forced to recollect that horrible incident which she experienced a mere 3 hours ago, when she finally spoke her voice was very quiet and shaky "I brought Lana to the park, there were a lot of kids playing there and a lot of kids her age were playing in a sandbox, building sand castles and such, so I let her join them while I watched from afar..."

The memories quickly flooded back to Luan, she was alone, sitting on a park bench, watching her little sister enjoying herself. Part of Luan felt a little envy towards the little blonde, she had little trouble blending in with her peers, Luan remembered how when she was her age things were much different, she sighted trying not to think about it " _Remeber what Lincoln told you, don't let the bullies get to you, besides Lana just helped you get some long overdue payback on the worst of them all._ ", Luan instantly chuckled, her only regret was not having the camera to capture that glorious moment on film, " _But you'll remember to bring one next time_..." she thought deviously "... _Kathleen isn't done with you and you aren't done with her, not by a long shot._ " It was very true, Kathleen would be taught that their little rivalry was a contact sport now, and she wouldn't be playing offense for very long.

However while she was lost in her thoughts she failed to notice the various kids around her suddenly starting to scatter, when she finally came back to her senses she was surprised to find the park a lot emptier than before " _Where did everyone go?_ " she wondered before hearing a voice to her left say "Hey", Luan turned her head and was met with a strange boy sitting next to her, he was leaning on a baseball bat and looked at her with interest, "Eh...hey." Luan replied awkwardly, feeling nervous, hardly anyone around her age ever talked to her, let alone approached her, so this came as a surprise. "Say tutz, aren't you one of the Loud siblings?" the boy asked her, sounding very intrigued, "Eh yes I'm Luan Loud." she awkwardly answered "Eh do I know you?", right then she noticed that the boys face had several bruises and his left arm was in a cast, the teen already felt like something was off.

He chuckled, rather ominously, "No you don't, but I did meet some of your siblings..." he said in a smarmy manner "...speaking of them, where are Lynn and Lincoln? I was hoping to see them.", Luan felt threatened, something about this guy seemed very off, but she tried to stay calm, "Well?" Lyle asked impatiently, Luan didn't feel comfortable telling him anything, so she told him a half-truth "Well Lynn is playing in a baseball match and Lincoln...well he went to watch her and give his sister some support." Luan let out a nervous laugh, but the boys grew a surprised and then displeased look "You're telling me they`re not here?" he spoke up, in a more hostile tone than he intended, as he rose up and faced Luan who finally mustered the courage to ask some questions " No they`re not." she told him with more confidence before raising an eye brow "By the way, who are you and how do you know them?", "Where can I find them?" was his immediate response.

Luan only grew more suspicious and uncomfortable "You didn't answer my question?", "That's none of your business bimbo!" Lyle suddenly snapped "Now tell me where I can find them?", Luan narrowed her eyes and got up "I don't know, I`m not their nanny! And if you want to insult me like that and demand that I give answers to some stranger then you`re nuttier than a squirrels winter storage!" Luan tried to leave but was grabbed by the arm and forcefully yanked back, "I`m afraid you're going nowhere." Lyle stated as he made her sit back down, "Hey let me go!" Luan cried as she tried to break free from his grip, but he proved to be strong. Lyle chuckled at her pathetic squirming "Now listen up you beaver faced bitch, I came here to have a little chat with those guys and I don't like to be disappointed, now where are they?"

" I don't do idle chit chat when I'm being held against my will!" Luan replied angrily, the boy smirked "Oh but I'm not a stranger, like I told ya I know Lynn and her pipsqueak brother, surely he told you about me, Lyle Owen.", Luan gasped, then narrowed her eyes "You hurt my little brother!" she snapped and finally managed to break out of his grip, Lyle snickered " Well congrats Tin Teeth you figured it out, but I only hurt him because he humiliated me first. Same for Lynn.", the boys smirk dropped into an angry scowl as he pointed at his cast, then at his bruised face and his missing tooth. "She did this to me! And she needs to pay for it!" he growled at Luan who glared back at him.

"Pay for what? For rightfully kicking your sorry ass!" she barely finished that sentence before she was slapped across the face with such force that it knocked her of the bench, barely having the time to registrate what had happened before she was on the ground, her cheek feeling numb and her head buzzing from the impact, she was quickly brought out of the trance by Lyle`s angry yell "Lynn is a stupid whore! Who got very lucky once!", his voice calmed down a bit as he stood over her and placed his foot on her chest " I see that all of you Louds are too dense to fear me."

His yell however attracted the attention of the kids in the sanbox, the little toddlers quickly recognized the bully and fled in terror, but not Lana, she looked in shock as she saw Lyle, but grew angry as she saw him grab Luan by her collar, all the little tomboy knew was that she had to help her sister.

Luan was forcefully hoisted up and pushed back, barely keeping her footing before falling on her but, "I`m asking you one last time, how can I find them!" he yelled at her, feeling scared Luan flinched "I told you, they're at the game, they'll be there all day, dads going to pick them up.", in spite of her fear she kept the charade, in order to protect her brother.

She struggled to stand up, only to see Lyle`s frown slowly twist into a smile "Well...I came here to get payback and I'm gonna get it one way or another." he said darkly, scaring Luan even more "W..what do you mean?" the stuttered fearfully as the boy raised his bat, Luan`s pupils shrank as she realized what he was thinking "Wait...you wouldn't hit a girl, would you?", she got her answer as the bat made contact with her chest, knocking the wind out of her before she collapsed to the ground, "Oh I totally would!" Lyle quipped sardonically.

Luan lay motionlessly on the ground, crippled by pain and feeling the pulse of her heart, she shed a tear as she opened her eyes to see Lyle looming over her. He smiled deviously "Look at that nasty overbite of yours, let see if my handy little bat can fix that!", he raised his bat up ready to deliver another blow, but then he screamed in pain as Lana grabbed hold of his leg and sank her teeth into it. He dropped his brat and tried to grab her, but she swiftly dodged him, "Leave my sister alone you big ape!" Lana yelled while shaking her fist, "You little rat!" Lyle lunged at her, but Lana ran underneath his legs, she tried to reach Luan, but was grabbed by the collar of her shirt and hoisted up, coming face to face with Lyle`s crooked grin "Oh I`ve been waiting to meet you again!" he gleamed, "Ditto!" an angry Lana replied before delivering a knuckle sandwich to Lyle`s nose.

The bully dropped her and clutched his bleeding nose, allowing Lana to reach her fallen sister, "Luan are you alright?" she asked with concern, "Yes I`ll be fine, but you have to get out of here now!" Luan urged her to run, but true to her nature Lana didn't listen " No way, I ain't leaving you behind!", "Lana please liste...NO!" Luan cried out as Lana was pulled back by Lyle.

"You made a grave mistake runt!" Lyle growled at the little girl who struggled to free herself from his grip "You don't scare me you dumb bully!" without hesitation Lana made the biggest spitball she could muster and shot it into Lyle`s face, big mistake.

Luan watched in horror as the boys face twisted in rage and without a moment of hesitation he struck her little sister in the face. Lana tumbled back several feet and started sobbing as the blow and the subsequent pain finally registered, Lyle moved towards her and she looked up at him teary eyed, without an ounce of remorse the boy brutally kicked Lana with his foot, sending her tumbling for several more feet, a stunned Luan could only watch in despair as she struggled to get up.

Lyle was once again looming over Lana who was now crying more loudly while clenching her right arm in a tight grip, "Not so tough now are we?" Lyle mocked her while growing a malicious grin, without a second thought he kicked her like a soccer ball once again, Luan couldn't believe her eyes, after hearing him utter his obnoxious laug at Lana`s pain Luan suddenly saw red.

"Aw is the wittwe baby cwying, do you need to see your mommy?" Lyle joked over the crying child before raising his bat high up, but then, in an instant, he was tackled to the ground and had a powerful punch delivered to his face.

"You diseased maniac! How could you be so cruel!" a crazed Luan yelled like a mad woman as she repeatedly delivered punch after punch to Lyle`s face, "She`s only 5!", the bully received one blow after another to his already battered face, but that didn't distract him from grabbing his fallen bat. Once he got a solid grip on it he swung it up and it made contact with Luan`s face, as she fell to his side Lyle got up and kicked her in the chest and then in the stomach.

Trying to suck up the pain Luan tried to get up, only to get slammed in the face by Lyle`s bat, as she hit the ground Lyle laughed " Poor, poor Louds. No matter how much you try, you'll always be someones punching bag!" he kicked Luan in the chest, she then cluched it in pain as her eyes started watering, "But hey look on the bright side, for others like me it's always a KICK.." he swiftly kicked Luan in the face "...to beat down freaks like you!"".

Luan layed on the ground, blood dripping from her nose and mouth and her breathing shallow, she barely managed to pry her eyes open to see Lyle closing in on her, seeing her motionless state he laughed "Oh don't tell me you're falling a sleep now. Lemme wake you up!" Lyle grinned sadistically as he kicked Luan in the stomach, and then in the chest, as she still layed limp on the ground he grew irritated and gave her one finally kick to the face. She tumbled back a bit and once again layed still, apart from her shallow breathing. Feeling satisfied Lyle went back to Lana who was still on the ground crying.

"Don`t give me water works now you brat, you asked for it by meddling with my business." he told her coldly as he raised his bat up, ready to teach her a lesson. But then, all of a sudden he noticed a red and blue flash in the corner of his eye, looking up Lyle`s face dropped as he saw a police car parking just 40 feet away from them, the screeching of tires also stirred Luan up, Lyle`s blood frooze as he saw the cops looking at him, "Nooo.." he whispered, he had been caught in the act, he panicked as he saw the cops exiting the car. In blind panic Lyle threw his bat at the car, the two officers ducked as it flew past them and broke trough their whindshield. While they were distracted, Luan saw Lyle running like a cheetah to escape the scene...

...

"And that's it. Lyle escaped and the officers brought us to the hospital, the doctor said I was very lucky that I didn't suffer any fractures to my head and ribs, but..." Luan started sniffing "..Lana wasn`t quite so lucky, her little arm suffered several fractures, but...at least now it should heal in a couple of weeks.", she tried to shift her focus towards more optimistic thoughts, but couldn't, after recollecting that awful incident she went back to sobbing, Lucy and Lisa came in to comfort her, but Lynn remained where she was, blank faced and distraught " _It's_ _all my fault, I messed with those scumbags, and they took it out on my sisters because of it._ ", Lynn felt overwhelmed with guilt and self disgust " _I am just a stupid, reckless jerk_..."

" It`s my fault Lana got hurt..." Luan`s voice woke her up from her trance, she still felt responsible for getting Lana hurt, but to Lynn`s the comedians self loathing accusations were unfounded, in her mind there was only one person to blame here. "It`s not your fault Luan, it's all mine..." her sisters all looked at her as she buried her face in her hands "...I was the one who provoked those boys into a fight, I`m the one they were mad at and it should have been me there, I deserved to get this beating." she admited drearily, she looked up at Luan "I`m sorry Luan, I`m so sorry.".

The younger sisters remained quiet, in Lucy`s case she certainly wasn't against Lynn pinning the blame on herself, in the little goths mind it made sense, in Lisa`s case she feared to say something insensitive in the heat of the moment, Luan too was a loss for words, but she didn't want her sister to carry such a burden, " Don't blame yourself Lynn, there was no way you could have known that Lyle would react the way he did." she softly told her younger sister, who in return sent her an irritated glare "Don't try to sugar coat this now, I know what I did..." she said bitterly, before suddenly walking out of the room.

"Lynn please, it's..."the teen tried to reason but Lynn cut here of "Stop lying to me..." she hoarsly retorted "...I did something stupid and I admit it, I`m sorry you and Lana had to suffer because of me.", and with that she was gone from their sights...

...

"Lincoln can...can you please stay with me for tonight?" Lana timidity asked her brother while he was tucking her in, after reading her a bed time story, Lincoln smiled at her "I told you before Lana, you're safe here, nobody can get you here. Besides Lucy and Lisa will be there to protect you, the rest of us will be just around the corner, infact if anyone tried to come in, they would have to get past dad first, and you know that he doesn't take kindly to anyone who threatens his kids.", he reassured her one more time before giving her a kiss on the cheek "Now you need to rest Lana, doctors orders." the boy joked while Lucy walked into the room "How`s she doing Lincoln?, "Fine, all things considered, she's just a little scared." he answered her.

"Don`t worry Lana, Lisa said how she was going to install an alarm system to warn us of any intruders, plus my deceased friends have promised to warn me of any danger if it closes in on our home." the goth comforted her younger sibling the best way she could, Lincoln was told that Lisa was back with Luan giving her some adittional medicine, which just left one sister out.

"And where's Lynn?", upon that question Lucy gained a disapproving look in her eyes "She`s in the living room, sulking after she realized that this was her fault." the goth answered bitterly, Lincoln looked and saw Lynn on the couch, "Lincoln?" the boy turned to the sound of Lana`s meek voice "Eh... yes?", the little blonde looked at him with pleading eyes "Can you please talk with Lynn now? You two need to make up, please!", Lincoln sighed remembering how he indeed wanted to talk to Lynn before he was detoured with a nasty surprise, " _I can't help Lana and Luan any further now, I guess now`s as good a time as any_.", "Don't worry Lana I will, right now!" he promised her, to which she gave him a joyous smile.

...

It was however only after Lisa returned and Lincoln made sure that his little sisters, as well as Luan, were all in bed, did he come to talk with the athlete, the one sister with whom he had probably the rough relationship, at least on his side, and the one with who he has been on nearly hostile terms for the last few days. Lincoln knew that a quiet atmosphere was definitely need for this.

Lynn was slouching on the couch when she detected someone else sitting next to her "What is it Lincoln?" she mumbled bitterly without even looking at him, Lincoln himself didn't know what to say, he was riddled with a lot of conflicting motivations, plus there was a lot to talk about and he didn't know where to start. After an awkward silence the younger Loud decided to break the ice "Lynn you seemed eager to talk with me just a few hours ago, but then..." he started nervously , but his voice trailed of "...we got distracted with...other things, but now I want to hear you out."

"What`s there to talk about?" she mumbled solemnly "I wanted to apologize for being mean to you, but what's the point anymore, I see now that I'm nothing but a burden to all of you.", Lincoln was surprised "What do you mean a burden?", upon hearing that Lynn faced him with an expression of hurt and anger "Oh don't play clueless now! You all told me that to my face and dad then reinforced it, that I'm a self absorbed jerk and a bully and that I only make your lives miserable, especially yours and Lucy`s, and I realize that now. I treated you like garbage for years and because of me foolishly deciding to fight those bullies, they went and hurt Lana and Luan as a result." her face was getting red and she tried to stop herself from crying "I know it's probably too late, but I want you to know that I'm sorry for being a horrible sister." she then buried her face behind her knees, "I understand why you hate being around me." she mumbled underneath her breath.

Lincoln was once again at a loss for words, he was mad at Lynn and he hadn't softened up on his stance that she had mistreated him in the past, but he didn't hate her, at no point did he feel about her like that, how could he?

"Lynn I don't hate you, none of us do." he calmly spoke up, Lynn raised her head up and glared at him "Then why did..." "Stop it!" a stern Lincoln cut her of "It`s my turn to speak and you`re going to listen." the boy said firmly, Lynn never appreciated being ordered around, but after todays events she did not want to steer up any more conflict, and that overuled her usual stubborn pride.

Lincoln prepared himself to say some things that have been boiling inside of him for years "It`s true that you can be a _real_ pain in the ass, it's true that I was always annoyed with your stubborn "my way or the highway" attitude and your lack of consideration , and yes I always hated being your training buddy and constantly going to your games and most of all I always hated how between the 2 of us it was always all take and no give on your side while I sacrificed so much free time just to make you happy and got basically nothing in return, and like it or not those days are over now, I`m done being your floor rug and if you insist on being selfish and ungrateful towards me in the future then I'll treat you the same way."

His words stung her even more than their fathers when he had spelled out her flaws to her, the conformation that their supposed happy memories as brother and sister together had been more or less nothing but misery to him, she could feel her eyes starting to tear up as she listened to the harsh truth.

"And you say that you don't hate me." Lynn responded with bitter sarcasm, while a small tear went down her cheek, "I did and I meant it." Lincoln said firmly "Like I said you`re a difficult person to live with, I you have made me mad numerous times, but in spite of your flaws I could never bring myself to hate you..." he looked down "...because you`re still my sister...and I love you."

He heard Lynn breathing intensely and saw her glaring at him with teary eyes "You can't be serious?" she spat out, her voice filled with hurt "I`ve done nothing for you and treated you like crap, and you claim to still love me!, "I mean it Lynn!" the boy snapped back "And it's not simply because you`re my sister, I know that deep down your a good person, you just showed remorse and regret in front of me, plus dad told about what you have said to him. I won't hate my own sister when I don't have to, when I know for a fact that you aren't the callous, self absorbed jerk I thought of you as whenever you made me mad beyond reason. Now do you want to prove me that I'm right or not?", he asked her, almost like he was making her a challenge, one she gladly took. This time she wouldn't allow her foolish pride to make her rebel against common sense out of spite, her brother meant more to her than her pride.

Lynn lunged at her little brother and embraced him in a tight hug, although Lincoln still felt a slight sting of pain from his bruise,s he quickly realized that this was an act of affection, and although it felt odd to be experiencing that from Lynn of all people, he soon hugged her back. They remained silent while warmly embracing each other, until Lincoln heard sniffs coming from his big sister "Lynn are you crying?" he asked in a jokey manner, "Yes I am!" she answered unashamedly "Because I love you too you doofus, no matter what! And I promise I`ll try to be a better sister, to all of you!", after another period of silence she finally let go and looked at him in the eye.

"So is it true?" Lincoln asked her in a more light hearted tone, Lynn blinked in confusion "Dad said that I was your favorite sibling?" Lincoln elaborated with a light smirk, the tomboy gave him sheepish smile "Yeah..." she scratched the back of her head "...it`s no secret that I'm not much into the girly stuff, so of course I was thrilled to get a brother..." "...But then you were disappointed at how I didn't turn out like you hoped?" Lincoln finished, his smile drooping. Lynn sighed "It`s not your fault Linc, you are who you are and there's nothing wrong with you, it was my fault that I didn`t accept you for what you are instead for what I wanted you to be."

Lynn then remembered something else "But I still enjoyed spending time with you bro, after all you were the only one who regularly came to watch me when I played, and you were always there to help me train, even though I know doing that must have been hell for you, sorry about that.", "Its alright Lynn, I did do it on my own will, but I'm afraid I won't be doing that for the foreseeable future, because frankly, no offense, but I hate sports." Lincoln bluntly admitted, "I understand." Lynn replied "But still...we can find something else to do together in our free time, something we can both enjoy..." then she poked Lincoln in the stomach and laughed "preferbly something that can still get you some exercise, which you desperately need.", Lincoln looked miffed, but then smirked "Or something that can help you learn to relax a little and smell the roses."

"I can totally relax!" Lynn argued, Lincoln crossed his arms "I doubt it.", "Is that a challenge? Alright, I`m grounded anyway, and I'll prove it." she grabbed Lincoln`s hand and shook it rather tightly, Lincoln hissed and started caressing his hurting hand. "Gotta say Linc, I`m actually proud to see you standing up to me the way you`ve been doing lately..." the jock pointed out "You are actually growing a backbone, but you also have enough common sense not to go too far with it...unlike me." her face dropped, remembering her beating from yesterday.

" Eh...thanks Lynn...oh and another thing..." Lincoln suddenly remembered "I`m sorry about how I called you all selfish and out of control brats.", "Its okay, you weren't exactly wrong, especially with me..." Lynn admitted "Still it was uncalled for, especially when I said that none of you cared about our family, I was just angry over the fact that we lost our home and that our family was torn apart, and how I had to deal with those bullies...", Lynn however still felt ashamed " Still it was our fault this happened, you had every right to be mad at us, we girls took what we had for granted and we wound up destroying it..." Lynn started tearing up a bit and Lincoln gave her a hug, she sighed "Guess this will a shame that all 9 of us will just have to live with...at least we can rest at ease knowing that at least you and dad forgave us for it."

"The past is the past Lynn, all we can do now is move on and appreciate what we still have.", "You're right...but there are also things in our lives that we shouldn't appreciate.." Lynn`s tone turned bitter "...like our 2 new neighbors" Lincoln blinked in surprise "...and speaking of them can you please tell me about your encounters with those thugs?".

Lincoln moved out of the hug and looked at her suspiciously, making Lynn groan and throw her arms up defensively "Relax Linc, I ain't planning on sneaking away at dawn and trying to get vengeance on them, I wanna show dad that I can be sensible and I can take comfort that the cops will bust them after Lyles stunt..." Lincoln felt relieved at that revelation, but Lynn was quick to add "... but if either of them tries to go after any of you again I can`t make that same promise." she firmly stated.

"But then why do you want to know about this?" Lincoln asked, feeling pretty embarrassed to talk about how he got beat up, his sister looked at him compassionately "Because if we want to get a mutual understanding Linc we need to be honest with each other and talk about things, you don't need to be ashamed to tell me about stuff like this...", reluctantly Lincoln opened up about his first, second and third encounter with the bullies. Those stories only helped cement Lynn`s hatred for the two, and after this Lynn felt it was only fair to talk about her own encounter with Taylor and Lyle, in all it's embarrassing glory.

At the end of it Lincoln was left in disbelief "Taylor actually beat you?" he asked in awe, still feeling ashamed of herself Lynn gave a weak nod " I gave them plenty of trouble, but in the end I guess I took on more than I could handle..." she solemnly admitted "...pretty embarrassing huh?", Linconl placed his hand on her shoulder "Its okay Lynn, I don't think any less of you because of this, no one is invincible. It's still admirable that you stood up for those kids."

"No, it was just stupid..." Lynn denied any praise "...I just got myself humiliated and pulverized and put Lana and Luan in harms way because of it. The only good thing, if you can call it that, is that it finally made me learn the hard way how reckless and cocky I was, now at least I can understand how people like you, Lucy and Luan must feel when someone powerful crushes you.", Lincoln knew that situation very well "Its definitely not a pleasant experience, especially when the "crusing" isn't of the physical variety."

"And I don't want to be the crusher either, never again." the tomboy stated, "And knowing is half the battle sport.", both were surprised to see Luan behind them leaning on the couch. "Luan what are you doing? You need bed rest!" Lincoln scolded her. "You're right Linky, walking here was real pain in the rib cavity, but seeing you two reconcile was worth it." the teen joked "They say laughter is the best medicine and nothing brings me more joy than seeing all of us being a family again!"

"Alright, we geczy, just don't go overboard with that sappy crap." Lynn complained, Luan gave her an amused glare "And by the way Lynn I was impressed by how mature you were acting a few minutes ago." Lynn pouted at that remark, "She`s kind of right on that Lynn." Lincoln jokingly admitted, leaving the jock peeved "Ha ha, very amusing Funny Girl, just try not to go all Lori on us with the responsibility act.", the other two laughed. Lynn rolled her eyes, before noticing something "Say where the heck did dad go?"

"Oh he said that he was taking a ride trough town to clear his head..." Lincoln told her "...also now that he knows where Lyle lives he`s going to call his parents and said that he needed to do that far away from us.", "Yes because he said that he would blow his top and use a lot of family unfriendly language in the process." Luan giggled lightly...

...

Later, at his home, Taylor walked over to the house phone, with his father away on another business trip and his mother sleeping soundly after coming back from her long hours at work, he had easy access to the answering machine where he already deleted 3 of Mr Louds messages, but after the fourth one he decided to do something more inventive and now sent him a reply from his "dad" dismissing Mr Loud claims and telling the clown haired weirdo to buzz of and that he has lawyers. " _Good thing that_ _Santiago guy_ _from the_ _grocery store_ _was gracious enough to play the role in my phony message, of course a little blackmailing certainly helped persuave him in the right direction._ "

Taylor patted himself on the back for his deviousness, he went back to his bedroom ready to catch some Zs, but then his phone rang and not too surprisingly it was Lyle, " _What does that dope want at 12 a.m?_ " Taylor groaned before answering the call.

"Hey Lyle, could you possibly wait until normal business hours?" Taylor lamented sarcastically, but then heard something surprising "You're hidding? What for?", he raised an eye brow as he kept listening to his friend, until Lyle dropped a bomb on him "You did what!?"...

 **And at last the most pig headed of the Loud sisters is seeing the error of her ways and making amends with Lincoln, finally. Like I said at the start of the fic, I did not intend to demonize any of the Louds and make Lincoln seem like a perfect angle, and I feel I accomplished that, thought when pairing him up with Lynn it's hard to make him look like he has any faults given how Lynn can be, but nonetheless I did try to address some issues I had with Lincoln as well, like his occasional spineless, doormat nature, and have him grow out of it.**

 **Now the Louds are coming together as a family again, but their problems might not be over, as their new enemies are now cornered against a wall thanks to Lyles actions and who knows what these bullies might do in a moment of fear and desperation.** **This chapter might have been a bit short, but I didn't want to cram up too much stuff into it and reserve the rest for the next one, which could be the climax for the story...maybe...**

 **And despite bumps in the road here and there, as well as some frustration whenever I faced a creative block, it has been fun doing this, I originally decided to do this after noticing how a lot of Loud House fanfics had been stagnated by several recurring fan cliché, so tried to offer something more out of the box to the mix and avoid certain clichés. Who knows, I might do more of these in the future...**

 **Also another note to the readers, any references to other canon characters, like the rest of the sisters or Bobby and Chandler are just that, little references for the fans to catch on, as most fan fics do, they`re nothing more relevant than that, so please don't leave responses that are simply pointing out those unimportant references, I find that pretty annoying. I appreciate getting reviews and all that, but only when they're related to the story itself, not to some minor shout outs to the show. Till next time...**


	7. A Family Sticks Together

**And here it is, at long last, the final chapter and I'm quite happy that it isn't what a lot of people would have expected...**

Many people, especially children, often take what they have for granted, only learning to appreciate it after they lost it or watched it nearly get destroyed, for the six Loud siblings that remained in Royal Woods with their father, that's exactly what they had to experience for the last two weeks. Half of their family had left them and the girls only had themselves to blame for it and their continued arguing nearly caused a rift between their already pretty strained relationships, especially with their sole brother, who had been the closet confidant for all of the remaining sisters for as long as they could remember.

And yet it was the harassment and subsequent danger that the siblings experienced separately from a single pair of mutual new enemies that ended up giving them a wake up call and led them back together to unite as a family and realize how much they meant to each other, various losses, some real, others only looming over and threatening them with becoming reality, ended up making them stronger as a family.

It not only made them more appreciative towards each other, but it also changed some of them, arguably for the better, now making a better effort to understand and communicate with each other, make life easier for one another, to resolve family issues before they became needlessly worse, and to try to strengthen their individual bonds, which in the past were mainly held together by Lincoln.

Spending time together wasn't an issue, or even an option on this Sunday afternoon, as Lynn was grounded and the rest was less than willing to step outside, with the threat of Lyle and Taylor looming around, in Luan`s and Lana`s case staying home were pretty much doctors orders. If there was one thing they agreed on, it was to ignore their current fears and problems and try to enjoy their day with each other.

Of course finding activities that they could equally enjoy together wasn't easy with the sisters usually clashing personalities and interests, especially with the sports oriented Lynn thrown into the mix. The fact that the most girly of the sisters were out of the equation helped a little, but in the end it was Lynn who had to suck it up the most and endure a day of lazing around the house and do various things, ranging from those that she could enjoy, like watcing movies, play board games and reminiscent about joyful family memories to things that truly required her strong will power to endure it, all for her siblings sake, from reading superhero comics to listening to gothic poetry and painful, pun reliant jokes to watching obnoxious preeschooler cartoons, " _Being a good sister ain't easy_." was the single most recurring thought in the 12 year old girls head, though her siblings had similar sentiments depending on the activity.

Of course their day didn't go by without some bickering, mainly between the sisters, though nothing serious or long lasting ever manifested from it, but whenever the sisters more negative quirks peaked trough Lincoln was remained how old habits die hard and the 10 year old knew that the idea of them living in perfect harmony was ludicrous, bickering was a part of family life, as long as it didn't escalate to severe extremes, and they all made sure that today, it never did.

However when nighttime arrived, the consequences of Lyle`s actions came trough, as Lana and even Luan didn't just have to deal with their physical, but also with their mental scars. Last night Lana was haunted with night terrors involving her recent incident, leading to a long and rather sleepless night for her family, as they all helped to comfort the traumatized 5 year old and get her to sleep. This time around Lincoln agreed to stay in the younger siblings room and sleep in Lana`s bed with her, which evidently worked well, as their room remained quiet for most of the night, however the same wasn't true in the other bedroom.

Lynn and Luan were it's only occupants for the night, and the jock was in a peaceful slumber, however the oldest of the siblings didn't have the same luck. Lynn was jolted back awake by a loud gasp/scream which was followed up by heavy panting, after yawning and rubbing her eyes the preteen knew that this could only have been Luan, "What's wrong Lu?" she saw her sister gazing out of the opened window, the moon light illuminating a face that showed clear terror, like she had just seen a ghost. She was quiet, staring off into the distance, "Luan what happened?" she heard Lynn`s concerned voice, but was unable to answer, until she finally put her nerves back together and spoke timidly "Its...nothing...really, nothing..." her voice shook "I...I...just need to see something."

Lynn knew that she wasn't okay as she followed after Luan, who was quietly sneaking towards the other bedroom, trying not to wake their father up. Lynn didn't ask any questions and just followed her, as they entered Luan moved towards the bottom bunk and found Lincoln and Lana sleeping soundly together, Luan sighed in relief " _Thank god she's okay_..." she said under her breath, " _Luan why did you come here?_ " Lynn whispered as she approached her, the not so joyful comedian didn't want to talk about, but Lynn was persistent, " _Come on, you can tell me in our room._ " with that she led Luan out.

They sat down on Luan`s bunk, " I heard you scream in your sleep, did you have a nightmare?" Lynn asked her in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, Luan nodded, hesitant to talk about it further, "What was it?" looking away from her sister the teen`s eyes started watering "I...saw myself and... Lana back at the park, when Lyle attacked us...", "You had a flashback?..." Lynn quickly figured it out, but let her sister speak out, Luan sniffed "I was being attacked and then he moved on to Lana, but the cops never came..." she was starting to shake and Lynn instinctively embraced her in a comforting hug.

Luan sobbed quietly "...he was hitting her with his bat over and over again...she was screaming and crying, I...I couldn't get up, I was in so much pain and then..." her voice cracked as she was gargling her own tears " I saw blood splattering and that woke me up."

"It`s alright sis, that didn't happen..." Lynn reassured her while feeling a chill go down her spine, realizing that could very well have happened had the cops not arrived at that very moment. "And I saw that Lyle, he was laughing and taunting me...I do...don`t want to see him." Luan sounded almost unintelligible from her tears, "You won't have to worry about that son of a bitch again..." Lynn`s voice grew more stern and hate filled "...he was undone by his own stupidity, attacking you in broad day light, in a park, never expecting someone to see him and call the cops, what a retard."

Luan chucked lightly "Yeah...guess he`s not the brightest bulb in the hut...", Lynn finally smiled "See now that's the Luan I know and love, always finding the humorous side, even in the bleakest of scenarios...like when Lyle went batty on you with eh...his bat." Lynn was meet with an awkward silence and chuckled nervously "Eh sorry...that was in poor taste.", Luan let go and looked at her with an somewhat amused look "Lynn? Don't you know that comedy is tragedy plus time, even when you're doing black comedy, better leave that to me little sis." she smiled inspite of her aching face, "Well, I`m just happy that you're not going all depresso because of your accident, and become a mime or something..." Lynn smirked.

"Mimes aren't depressed, they`re performers who remain quiet in order to express their skills as an entertainer and act out a story through pure body movement, I thought about trying it out at some point...", "Well that would be...something" Lynn replied, though her sister couldn't tell if she was supportive or sarcastic. "You're awake."

The two jumped as Lucy was suddenly standing next to them, "Lucy why aren't you sleeping?" Lynn scolded her after nearly bumping her head, the goth answered " We need you, Lana woke up again..."

...

All the siblings were huddled around Lincoln and Lana who were laying in the bottom bunk for the night. "It okay Lana, he can't get you here, we`re all going to protect you." Lincoln reassured the crying preeschooler, "I know...but I saw him in my dream...chasing me...saying he`ll hurt you guys...I`m scared to see him again.." Lana whimpered while clinging on to her brother.

"Blasted, there has to be some form of therapy that can neutralize the presence of nightmares!" Lisa lamented while writing things in her notepad and quickly crossing them of, Lucy meanwhile gave her own bit of solemn wisdom "I worry that they may never go away, scars on the body fade away with time, but scars in the mind might last for eternity." her eyes now revealed her sadness as she believed in her dour prediction, "Don't worry Lucy, Lana just needs to feel safe and secure, to think happy thoughts before she falls asleep." Luan added "And I'll perform and try to make her laugh as hard as I can, and I don't care if my whole body hurts or if it takes all night!"

Lana looked saddened "No Luan I don't want you to strain yourself because of me, you need to rest." "It`s all right Lana, that's the least I can do after getting you hurt.", Lana then narrowed her eyes and finally regained some of her confidence, to everyones surprise she climbed out of the bed and went up to the teen "Will you stop blaiming yourself? It's not your fault and it never will be! You only tried to make me happy and it was all Lyle`s fault!", she stretched her arms up, Luan got the signal and picked her up, allowing Lana to hug her, Luan smiled and shed a tear of joy, especially after her recent nightmare.

"The positive effects a human embrace can induce on a depressed individual is astounding, I experienced it twice and yet I still can't fully comprehend the science behind it." Lisa observed making Lincoln roll his eyes, albeit amusingly, "You still have a lot to learn Lisa." he said light heartedly. "Guys I have an idea!" Lynn spoke up, earning everyones attention "How about we all sleep here for tonight, you know have a sleep over and that way Lana can feel completely secure." "That's a great idea Lynn!" the five year old cheerfully, and immediately agreed with the suggestion.

"But where are we all going to sleep?" Luan questioned, "Well given your...eh condition dear sister, I`ll be happy to relinquish my bunk for you to rest in, you obviously need it more than me.", Lisa`s generous offer surprised everyone "Lisa...I couldn't do that..." Luan declined "...it would be very irresponsible of me to let my little sister sleep on the floor.", "No, I must insist, it's my moral duty as a caring siblings to put my injured siblings before me..." Lisa then felt someones arm on her shoulder, it was Lucy "If I can make a suggestion, Lisa can share my bunk with me, that is if she's comfortable with it." the expression in her eyes was hard to read, but the genius was quick to agree "A well thought out idea sister, our mutually diminutive proportions should allow for plenty of space.", Lucy made a small smile.

"Okay then." said Lincoln "But what about you Lynn?", the jock shruged it off "I only need a pillow, I enjoy ruffing it, that way I can remain on high alert! That way I`ll be quick to beat up any intruder stupid enough to try and get Lana." Lynn boasted while displaying a few fighting moves.

Then she felt someone tugging at her pants, it was Lana "Lynn thanks for looking out for us, you're a great big sister.", as she looked up at Lynn with that innocent yet cheerful expression, the athlete felt like her heart was melting, but she didn't want to get all mushy and sentimental "There's nothing to it squirt, I`m just doing what any big sister would do, looking out for my family..." she picked Lana up in her arms "...and if either of those two scumbags lays even one finger on any of you, I `m going to make them wish they were never born.", Lana promptly hugged her, and Lynn heared the others awing, "Dang it, I forgot to get my camera again.", Lynn was peeved and glared at them.

"Alright let's not get too sappy with this family stuff, if we're having a sleep over, let's make it fun..."

...

And of course the sleep over included staying up late, which meant that now the kids were sound asleep in the morning, a lucky break for their father who now at least had an easier and more peaceful time getting ready for a long, boring day at work. However one kid was already out of bed, for Lynn it was almost instinctual to be an early riser and do her morning exercise, however she had to be remained that she was grouped and would have to do it inside, and be very carefully while doing it it, unless she wanted to extend her sentence.

"Yes dad, I promise I`ll be careful." she said it with a strong hint of bitterness and resentment, "Good, now you kids behave while I'm away..." he was leaving with his suitcase, but noticing how his daughter was still sore about her punishment, he added "Lynn remember that I take no enjoyment in punishing you, but you brought this on to yourself and now you have to face the consequences.", "Okay dad I understand." she said begrudgingly "I`ll take my punishment with dignity and behave myself.", her father smiled slightly "I`m proud to hear that, you're acting more responsibly already, and who knows if you live up to your promise you may get of early for good behavior.", Lynn pouted as her father left, and started with her early morning workouts.

Mr Loud was walking downstairs when a young boy in a green,striped t-shirt passed by him, going up, "Good morning sir!" he politely greeted, "Right back atcha kiddo!" Mr Loud waved at the boy as he descended towards his van " _Nice kid, though he should try to do something about those eye bags, kids these days just don't priorities sleep._ ", unbeknownst to him the boy was watching him leave before heading towards the Louds apartment.

Inside Lynn was busy doing pushups before she was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door, " _Did dad forget something?_ " "Who is it!" she shouted, " _Oh I`m just trying to meet my new neighbors._ " the voice sounded like a boy no older than Lynn, and he spoke in an almost comically sweet and corny manner, Lynn was confused, she went over and peaked trough the looking hole only to see a hand wiggling its fingers, Lynn was getting annoyed and started opening the door, " _I don't know who this joker is, but if he thinks he can_...", but then her eyes went wide and she gasped.

"Miss me, sweetheart?" Taylor smirked as he stood at the front door, in an instant Lynn felt her blood boil, her heart pounded intensely, rage and vengeance were the only thoughts cruising trough her mind. She grabbed Taylor by his striped t-shirt, pulled him inside and slammed him against the floor "Wow, someone's never heard of hospitality..." the boy quipped before he was tackled and pinned against the floor by Lynn who grabbed his neck and started choking him "You have some nerve to come here!" Lynn hissed viciously as she kept strangling him, "What...can I...say...I`m a...gutsy fellow." Taylor kept quipping between chokes before throwing Lynn of him.

He got up "Now then, can we talk?", Lynn was up and standing her ground while snarling and gritting her teeth like a feral animal, "Guess not." Taylor concluded before running behind the tv as Lynn followed him, he jumped on the couch and dove behind it, "What do you want!" Lynn shouted angrily while standing on the other side, "I told ya, I wanted to talk with you." Taylor said nonchalantly, "You broke into my home now, I`m calling the police!", "For what? For assaulting your house guest? How are you the victim in in this?" Taylor teased her and watched her boil, "Shut up!" Lynn lunged at him but he escaped.

"I get why you're mad,but I think that there's a misunderstanding." following the sound of his voice Lynn attacked and swung her fists, but Taylor caught them both and forced them down, they then meet face to face "Still as feisty as ever I see, but we really need to talk...OW!" Lynn kicked him in the shin, forcing him to release his grip. Within a second Lynn delivered a powerful punch to his face, causing him to slam against the wall and slide down. "Okay I guess I had this one coming." Taylor joked as he rubbed his sore cheek, "There's plenty more where that came from!" Lynn cracked her knuckles as she zeroed in on Taylor who chuckled in response "Okay as much as I enjoyed our little wrestling match, it's time to talk.", in an instant Taylor pounced the girl and had her pinned against the floor with his knees while restraining both of her arms.

Lynn growled and squirmed, but couldn't break free, Taylor`s face came down until it was uncomfortably close to hers "I know what Lyle did to your sisters, but you need to know that I wasn't involved in it and we might have a common problem now.", "Liar!" she snapped while still struggling to free herself, Taylor sneered "Don't act stupid Lindsey, you Louds may be freaks, but what would I have to gain from crippling a dork and a five year old, I ain't into holding petty and ilogical grudges. And I ain't into picking on toddlers. "

Lynn finally calmed down a bit and glared him in the eye "You honestly expect me to believe anything that comes out of your lying shit hole? You attacked my brother and you attacked me, and now you expect me... ", Taylor snickered "Look I hate to repeat myself for the fifth time, but we _really_ need to talk, can't we let bygones be bygones and act like mature adults, we are both twelve for heaven`s sake!", Lynn couldn't tell how sincere versus how sarcastic he was being, but at last she complied "Fine I`ll talk, just get the hell of me!", Taylor did so without a second thought "Ah so there is a brain behind that pretty face." he said smarmily while offering her a hand up, which she slapped away and got herself up.

"So this is where you live, quite the dingy little place!" Taylor looked around while Lynn eyed him suspiciously "Ya know I expected a family of twelve to live in a bigger home, how do you all fit in just two bedrooms?" Taylor asked before seating himself comfortably on the couch "And where is your mom , I only saw your old man?", Lynn restrained herself from snapping again "If you're that curious to know..." she hissed bitterly "...my parents divorced.", Taylor was evidently caught of guard as his face dropped to one of surprise "The ones you and Lyle meet are all that's left of my family here." Lynn finished, still glaring at him.

"Eh...I see." the boy replied awkwardly, obviously feeling uncomfortable with the reveal, "So what did you want to talk about?" Lynn demanded agressively as she sat next to him "Oh yeah...about Lyle." the boy seemed very happy to change the topic, " _If I didn't know any better I`d say he`s feeling guilty?_ " thought Lynn. "So if you _claim_ to be uninvolved, who's bright idea was it to try and bloody cripple my sisters?" the tomboy asked hostility, though as usual Taylor wasn't intimidated.

"Well if you're talking ironically, that bright idea was Lyle`s, in fact when I caught wind that you're little bro was snitching on us, I did decide to go and try to scare him into staying quiet..." Lynn`s glare intensified "...but I told Lyle to stay out of it, cuz...well he tends to act without thinking much, but I never thought he would do what he did..." Lynn was convinced that he was lying, but his story was matching up with what her siblings had told her, and how he and Lyle were in separate places at around the same time. Yet something didn't add up, the girl narrowed her eyes.

"But you're his friend and yet you were surprised by what he did?" she accused him, to which he only gave her one of skin crawl inducing smiles "Yes I was his friend, but not for long. See I only meet him at the start of June, after my family moved here from Cape Town, South Africa..." "You're from Africa?" Lynn snickered dismissively "Yeah right." which seemed to annoy the boy a bit " Yes I am, and believe me I wasn't happy when my parents business lives dragged me away from my home and friends and dropped me in this dump in Michigan filled with weirdos and lame-os, Lyle was the only kid with some moxy around here..."

" Awww so is that the reason you brutalize the kids here, cuz they ain't as cool as your chums in Cape Town? You're pathetic." Lynn told him with utter disgust, making him send her a death glare "That's none of your business!" he said darkly, sounding like he did the last time Lynn saw him, when he beat her up, his change in tone spooked Lynn a bit. "And besides me and Lyle aren't friends anymore..."

"Oh and why is that?", "Simple, just two days ago he called me, told me that he was hidding, but never revealed where, and then told me why, and frankly I was appalled. He asked for my help, but at that point I realized that I fell in with a bad crown, I always felt like there was something wrong with him, but I chalked it up to his stupidity, but after what he had done I straight up told him that we were finished, he crossed the line..."

He was interrupted by Lynn`s dry laughter, "What?", "Oh don't play with me..." she said bitterly " ...you act like you feel remorse about this, but I know that you're just trying to cover your ass to avoid punishment, you wouldn't have cared if Lyle killed them!" the last part came out more intensely than she had expected, but Taylor once again only looked at her coldly "Belive whatever you want Lynn, but I`m telling the truth..." he spoke dryly "...I only fib when it suits my goals, and this time it doesn't. And here's the part that should have you concerned, obviously Lyle didn't take my response well, he called me a "traitor" and said that I would pay, and he obviously harbors a grudge against you Louds, he blames you for getting him in trouble...

"How? By being his victims!" Lynn yelled "Yes, apparently in his moronic mind that makes perfect sense..." a deadpan Taylor replied "...and that's what you Louds should look out for." Those news were certainly alarming to Lynn, but she wouldn't show it in front of him "If that's all then you can leave..." she told him blankly, he glared back "No...I need to see your sisters first..."

...

She first showed him Luan, who along with the rest of the siblings was sleeping peacefully, her bruises had started going away slightly , but were still quite visible. Taylor`s reaction came as a surprise to Lynn, he didn't smirk, he didn't quip any sardonic lines, he just looked at her and seemed genuinely distraught, "Lyle did this?" he quietly asked, Lynn was all to happy to confirm it "Yes, and she looked even worse when she first came in, both her and Lana, who's arm had been broken, and they were both so traumatized that they had nightmares about it." she whispered bitterly, Taylor looked back at the teen and Lynn could have sworn that she heard him mumble "That idiot!" under his breath before turning towards Lana, who was sleeping in Lincoln`s arms.

"Well I hope you`re happy." Lynn spat out as the boy watched Lana, looking at her bruises and her cast and actually looking shocked. Then he suddenly left, "Hey where are you going now!" Lynn shouted from the living room, "I`ve seen enough." he answered simply, Lynn became angry "Why the hell did you come here?", "To see what Lyle had done, now I have.", but before he could leave Lynn grabbed his arm, and soon they were glaring each other down.

"Oh I see what's going on, you're actually feeling guilty about what you have done to us, but you're too much of an ASS to simply admit it!" Taylor sneered "Don't flatter yourself, I did nothing wrong to you, it was Lyle who attacked them.", but Lynn didn't back down "But you did hurt me and my brother, kids from a poor, single parent family who just went trough a divorce. Why don't you just man up and admit it!", she was challenging him but Taylor didn't cave in " Yeah right, in case you've forgotten, you were the one who attacked me and your brother...well he was begging to be picked on by being such a freak!". His response hit a nerve with her, especially since it sounded very familiar.

"Take that back!" Lynn`s voice was harsh and laced with pure venom, "Make me!" Taylor teased her, bad move. In a milesecond Lynn threw him against the ground and tackled him, they wrestled on the ground before Taylor got up, with Lynn on his back, holding him in a choke hold and biting into his shoulder. Getting an idea, Taylor tumbled backwards towards the couch, until he fell on it, pinning Lynn under his weight. While she was temporarily stunned he swiftly turned around and started restraining her once again. He once again moved his face uncomfortably close to the struggling Lynn, gleefully smirking "When are you going to get it that I'm stronger than you!", Lynn once again felt his rancid breath and gagged "Did you ever hear of mouthwash? ", "Am I interrupting something?" came Lucy`s deadpan voice.

Her sudden appearance spooked Taylor, causing him to fall of Lynn and hit the floor, Lynn smirked when she heard the sound of his head slamming against the floor "Such wonderful timing Lucy!" she complimented her only to see the angry look in the goths eyes, "What`s he doing here?" the little girl pointed at Taylor who was on the floor rubbing his head. "That's not your concern Lucy, just go, I`ll be showing our uninvited guest the way out." Lynn told her sister dismissively ,"No I won`t, this is my business too and you can't tell me what to do!" the goth snapped at her, Lynn grew irritated "Yes I can, I`m older, now beat it!", "Make me!" Lucy defied her, growing more frustrated Lynn looked back at Taylor who was getting up and then back at Lucy, before grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into the bedroom.

"Lucy this is really not the moment for bickering." Lynn whispered to the goth who looked angrily at her, "Why is he here?" she bluntly asked, Lynn didn't know what to tell her "I don't know, he claims that he wanted to see if Lana and Luan were alright..." "You`re hidding something from, I can feel it." the goth talked accusingly much to Lynn`s frustrations "Okay that`s not everything, but nows not the time to talk, I`ll explain it to you latter, just stay here..."

"You still act like I'm lesser than you and you want to boss me around" Lucy angrily blurted out, "I`m not, but you're too young to understand what's going on right now, I need you to stay out of this..." "So you also take me for stupid too, just because I'm younger? Thanks a lot." Lucy said sarcastically, but she also sounded hurt, Lynn tried not to let her temper go wild " _Just stay level headed Lynn, just stay calm and act responsibly_..." he told herself and kneeled down and placed both hands on Lucy "I don't think that, but I am trying to keep you safe, because you're my little sis and I love you. This creep is dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt, just stay here and as soon as he leaves, I`ll tell all of you about what's going on." Lucy looked at her while contemplating, before nodding making Lynn smile "Thanks for trusting me, now don't worry I`ll be back in a minute.".

But as soon as she was gone..."Guys! Guys! Wake up!" Lucy stirred her siblings back awake, Luan yawned "Lucy what's the matter?", Lincoln was rubbing his eyes when Lucy made him jolt in shock "Taylor`s here! He`s in our home right now!", Lincoln was shocked, but was then quick to dismiss it as a joke "Okay Lucy, I`m happy to you trying out to be funny, but..."

"Now if you don't have anything more important to tell me, GET LOST!", "Leave? Now? But I was having so much fun with you here...", " _That`s Taylor!_ " Lincoln recognized his voice immediately, "What's he doing here?" the boy sounded fearful as he held tight to the terrified Lana, Lucy also looked distraught "I don't know Lyn said someth..." "So Taylor is here?" they heard an enraged Luan, "Yes he is, and he.." Lucy was cut off by Luan`s sudden growl "That does it!" the teen was raging and stormed out of the room. Outside the two preteens were arguing when suddenly Luan charged at them and Taylor once again found himself being pinned down and getting strangled, while also having his head slammed against the floor.

"You lousy, shit sucking, demented bastard! How dare you enter our home! I`m going to kill you!" Luan ranted madly, but then Taylor grabbed hold of her arms and started restraining her, he sent Lynn a glare "Get this crazy cunt of me before I decided to hurt her!, knowing not to take his threat lightly Lynn yanked Luan of him and started restraining her, "Let me go! I`ll kill that child beating jackass! Luan protested crazily, " Luan get a grip on yourself, you don't stand a chance against him!" Lynn was now the voice of reason, "You better listen to her Squirrel Girl." Taylor smirked gleefully as he saw her growling and snarling at him. The rest of the siblings finally got the courage to arrive on the scene, "Ah the six dwarfs are finally assembled, heigh ho!" Taylor waved at them, only to be meet with angry glares, "Awkward." he then noted.

While Lynn was still restraining Luan, Lincoln mustered the courage to face Taylor "What the hell do you want! Why are you here!" he looked up at the preteen who only seemed amused in response, "Well good morning to you too pipsqueak.", Lincoln was fuming "Enough stupid jokes!Why are you here! Did you just come here to gloat?", "Ah wish I was, but unfortunately I`m not." he answered smarmily, but then saw Lana approaching him "Why did you attack my siblings?" she glared at him, but sounded confused and hurt more than anything, "And why did your friend attack me and Luan?" she teared up on that second question, Taylor once again seemed remorseful but tried to hide it, he groaned "Fine I`ll explain it to you a second time..."

...

There was an uneasy silence as the Loud siblings sat around their enemy, letting him say what he wanted to say, exept for Lynn who stood crossarmed in the corner, watching Taylor for any suspicious moves. "This is preposterous..." Lisa whispered to Luan "I fail to see why we are letting our nemesis sit in our home like he`s our guest, I propose that the rest of you hold him down while I try out my cross species mutation serum to regress that tyrannical barbarian back into the deplorable cockroach he is, I`m 43% certain that my serum will be successful.", Luan sighted lightly "Lisa that wouldn't be very ethical, and that's the drawback of being a good person, you have to treat everyone equally...even those who don't deserve it." her tone darkened while she watched Taylor, Lisa meanwhile just crossed her arms and pouted. "Is that why you assaulted him earlier?" the genius asked in her typical dry tone, "I wasn't thinking straight, alright?" Luan retorted.

"And why on Earth should we believe anything you're saying? We know you're just trying to save your skin." Lincoln snapped at the older boy who was, at most, mildly annoyed by it "Well my dear pipsqueak it doesn`t really matter if you believe me or not, my parents don't believe in your dads accusations anyway and you have no means of providing them otherwise..." he smirked at the Louds "...so if you were hoping to see me grounded or...I don't know...sent in the corner, sorry to disappoint you.", his obvious amusement from their angry stares got under Lynn`s skin, but she kept herself composed, before walking towards them.

"Whatever. We don't care about petty payback, but if you ever bother anyone of us again, I`m going to make your life a living hell!" Lynn tightened her fist and moved it just inches from Taylor`s face to make the message clear, the boy sneered at her "Can`t make any promises." he snarked at her making her growl "Though given what...eh Lyle did to ya, this could be a bit awkward to do." he added semi-sincerely.

Lincoln glared at him, still feeling furious on the inside, but remained silent as he knew that he was in position to give any kind of warning or threat what's so ever, Luan didn't quite manage to be as restrained, as she jumped from her stool "You better promise! Or I'll give you one punch line you won't soon forget!" her threat however only received a wolf whistle in response "Uhhh you're feisty too, must run in the ladies blood line here, I admire that...and you know looking past those beaver gnashers you're kind of pretty." the comedian felt like she vomited in her mouth from the comment and fell back down on her stool, "Alright enough pleasant talk..." Lynn shouted as she grabbed Taylor`s arm "...time for you to go!","Wait!" said Lana who walked over to them.

"You didn't answer my question. Why were you picking on my siblings?", the boy looked down at her in annoyance "What kind of a question is that? First of Lynn was the one who attacked me and as for the pipsqueak..." he shot a glance at Lincoln "...well he was just begging to be messed with by being a weirdo." "And how is he a weirdo?" she shot back leaving Taylor dumbfounded before he chuckled "Seriously kid? Well I`m afraid that living in a family of freaks has colored your perception a bit, but I can assure you..." he was cut of by Lynn yanking him away by the arm "It's time for you to beat it." the jock said sternly while the rest of them watched him get pulled away with disapproving stares, "Alright I get the hint that I'm not welcomed." Taylor made his last quip as Lynn pushed him out of their apartment and closed the door after following him outside.

"Oh does the lady have some parting words." Taylor asked as they were now alone, "Yes and it's your final warning!" she looked him straight in the eye "If I even hear about you coming anywhere near any of my siblings I will make you regret it!", Taylor smirked at her "And you say that after I kicked your ass? I`m afraid it wouldn't do you well to get on my bad side.", " I don't care if I get hurt, if you mess with my family you will answer to me!" with that she went back to open the door.

"Bold words, I really do admire your spunk tutz...you know when you're not too busy with family time maybe you and I could hang out together, what do you say?", his offer made her boil, after all he had done he had the nerve to ask her that, Lynn was a hair string away from punching his lights out, but she managed to keep herself composed and entered her apartment before turning around to face the boy. "Not even if you were the last person on this planet." she said with tranquil disgust before slamming the door shut. Taylor was left alone, but the instant rejection didn't damper his spirit "Ah playing hard to get I geczy!" Taylor shouted loud enough for the girl to hear, before finally leaving.

...

Some time latter the siblings were watching tv, trying to get the minds away from the potential danger they might face in the future, the younger ones were on the ground and more distracted by the screen than the older ones, all three of which felt concerned, Lynn was slouching in the corner of the couch, resting her head in her hand and looking distracted. "Lynn are you okay?" asked Lincoln who was sitting next to her, the tomboy sighed "I`m fine...it`s just that I have a feeling that I haven't seen the last of Taylor.", Lincoln knew that she might be right but tried to ease her worries nonetheless "I wouldn't worry too much, I mean how often could you run into him..." he shrugged sheepishly "...he doesn't strike me as the sports type.".

"Yeah, and besides..." Luan chimed in "...you already had a streak of bad luck with being beat up, loosing that game and humiliating yourself , getting grounded and of course the...eh family stuff, I mean what are you're chances of like ending up as Taylor`s classmate or something?" Both Lynn and Lincoln sent her deadpan, or in the former`s case more angry, glares and the comedian quickly caught on what she did, "Ehhh...sorry I said that" she shrunk back.

"Thanks for jinxing me Lu." Lynn exclaimed sarcastically before resting her head on the couch with a heavy sigh. "Eh guys?" they heard Lucy`s timid voice and saw her along with Lana and Lisa looking at them, "What is it?" Lincoln asked, Lucy looked down "Its just...about Lyle, I`m scared." she admited timidly, "Yeah me too..." said Lana fearfully "...we`re scared that he`ll come after us.", the older siblings looked at each other, knowing that the younger sisters fears were justified.

"Their worries are not unfounded, regardless of the level of truth behind Taylor`s claims, his cretinous associate is now stuck between a proverbial rock and hard place, and it's rather difficult to predict the future course of action that a person with his low cognitive skills would take." Lisa added her assessment on the situation. "Girls there's nothing to worry about, the police saw him in the act and are now after him, he can't hide forever and I have little doubt that they will catch him and send his sorry behind to juvie in no time." Lincoln reassured his little sisters, though he along with Lynn and Luan knew that this might not be certain and that they should remain vary, but then again they knew how Lyle wasn't much of a thinker and was seen red handed, so Lincoln`s scenario would probably play out.

"And if he ever does show his ugly mug again, I`ll make sure to knock the rest of his mangled teeth out..." Lynn boastfully promised to her little sisters "...unlike Taylor, Lyle is more bark than bite when faced with a fair fight. And if he thinks that _he_ can use a bat, then he has seen nothing yet. " she winked at her little sisters. That gave the younger sisters more reassurance for their safety, and as a whole the siblings knew one thing for sure, what ever trouble they may face in the future, they would face it together and watch each others backs, as a family.

"And speaking of the word "bat"..." Lisa suddenly spoke up "... you Lucy really need to keep the _Myotis sodalis_ that you refer to as Fang in line, I just found out that he had ingested the entire millipede farm that I was studying."

"What? Lucy`s bat is here?" Lynn exclaimed, sounding a tad unerved "Well he sort of comes and goes as he wants..." Lincoln told her "...he followed Lucy here, dad doesn't know it, but we kept it a secret for Lucy`s sake." , Lynn looked back at the gothic 7 year old who had worried look on her face, the athlete sighed before smiling "Don't worry Luce, your secret`s safe with me..." the goth smiled "...just remember to keep him well away from my room." the jock quickly added.

Lucy smirked "Can't make any promises on his behalf, the creatures of the night do as they please.", Lynn`s face slowly dropped before she let out a dry laugh "Very funny Duchess of Darkness, you know I'm starting to regret telling you to grow a spine...", the other siblings giggled and Lynn soon joined them.

Obviously they would never live in total harmony, but then again that was kind of the thing that made living in a big family so much fun...

 **And so the story finally concludes, at the very cusp of July it's finally finished, I still can't believe that it took me nearly 2 months to finish this, but now that it's finally done it feels very rewarding.**

 **And I'm sure some people will complain about how the bullies didn't get an obvious and obligatory humiliating defeat, so let me explain why I decided to end it like this. First of the focus of the story was always meant to be on the relationships between the siblings and now that they all have reconciled as a family I felt like the main conflict of the story was over and to drag it out further with a generic "get payback on the bullies" plotline would in my mind defeat the purpose of the story. Likewise part of the story was also there to realistically show how kids should and shouldn't deal with bullies, and I made a point to show the Loud siblings as the better people by having them be above petty grudges and a desire for vengeance.**

 **And secondly if I decide to write more Loud House fics, which I probably will in the near future, as I already have a couple of ideas, this will serve as a starting of point for this AU timeline and I thought it would be a bad idea to tie everything up now, when certain things I originally had in mind for this story would serve better in future stories, and the antagonists I introduced could have more potential as characters in the future.**

 **I thank those who responded and liked this story, I was happy to see that people enjoyed it and that I got as many views as it got. I hope that I can bring more to this community in the future...**

 **Oh and I saw a number of fanfics give out fan casts at the end, or more precisely semi-fan and semi-canon casts, to make it seem a bit more official ;) So I thought why the hell not...**

 **The voice cast :**

 **Collin Dean as Lincoln Loud**

 **Jessica DiCicco as Lynn Loud, Lucy Loud**

 **Cristina Pucelli as Luan Loud**

 **Grey DeLisle as Lana Loud, Kathleen**

 **Lara Jill Miller as Lisa Loud**

 **Scott Menville as Ryan Taylor**

 **Greg Cipes as Lyle Owen**

 **Brian Stepanek as Lynn Loud Sr**

 **Till next time...**


	8. A Teaser With Taylor

It was dusk and lone boy was walking down the streets of the suburbs, passing under one street light after another. Humming and with his hands in his pockets Taylor breathed in and then exhaled another gulp of the cool and refreshing night air, the dark always had a very soothing effects on him and for all purposes he would have loved to continue his prolonged stroll, but in light of current events even he was more vary about the risk of getting into trouble.

After his visit to the Louds Taylor had few options on how to spend his day, now he had no one to hang out with and as much as hated to admit it, what Lyle did shook him up a bit, as was seeing the condition of his victims, so even he felt hesitant about picking on any kids today, leaving him with little else to do but stroll aimlessly trough town, he certainly had little reason to head back home beyond a bed to sleep in for the night. And there it was, he had arrived back at the Taylor household, a two story house in the middle of a cul-de-sac.

And he quickly noticed that neither his mom`s or his dad`s car was anywhere in sight, the boy chuckled dryly " _Guess I know who`ll be "in charge" of the house tonight_.". As he opened the door he saw a 14 year old girl sitting on her easy chair next to the couch and reading a book, while the tv was shut off, as usual when his sister was left alone in the living room.

"I see that my favorite frumpy book worm is still scared of facing the dreaded idiot box." he quickly spoke in a mocking tone, the teen finally looked at her brother, she bore a strong resemblance to him, dowright to their hair color, yet she was a lot more well dressed and groomed and the look on her face was little more than a bored and dismissing glare "Oh you're back..." she said apathetically, though Taylor really expected her to say something along the lines of "Ughh you're still alive", " _Seems I caught her in a good mood, let's see if I can change that_..." he thought.

"You were hoping that I wouldn't come back, huh? Well sorry that I let you down Renee?", his sister only made a barely noticeable huff before turning her face back to her book, Taylor got a devious look and pressed on "...but I guess that if something happened to me, then that wouldn't put Miss Responsible in a good light would it?", "Hardly, mom and dad wouldn't think any less of me over a lost cause like you..." Renee told him, still sounding disinterested "...at least I spend my time doing productive things, instead of lazing around and brutalizing others."

"Why you make it sound like it's a bad thing?" his sleezy tone made Renee increasingly frustrated, but she kept her compouser, if she ignored him long enough he would go away. After not getting a response the boy knew what his sister was doing, he knew exactly the choice words he could use that would certainly tip her over the edge, but that would probably also lead to a nasty fight, and for an uptight nerd his sister could be very savage when she snapped, normally he wouldn't be hesitant about getting her there, but tonight he just didn't have the energy for another brawl, so he passed by her and moved upstairs, he would only go for a quick stop at the bathroom before heading to his room.

However once he left the bathroom he spotted a 10 year old boy who also bore a strong likeness to him, walking down the holeway in his pajamas reading an Ace Savy comic, Taylor rolled his eyes " _So Roy is getting caught up in this retarded fad too_.", he then swiftly snatched the comic out of his brother`s hands, catching him of guard, "Ryan?" Roy yelped, not having spoken or even seen his brother for days, not that they spend quality time together to beggin with.

"Oh don't tell me you're reading this bullshit too?" Ryan laughed as he held the comic out of his brothers reach, who didn't make much of an effort to get it back, but instead just looked down and twiddled his fingers "Well...all my friends are reading it and..." "Well in that case you need a new group of friends if you don't want to be even more of a loser than you already are you twerp..." Ryan told him before throwing the comic back at his brother who caught it clumsy, Ryan then pointed at his bruised cheek "You see this, I got it during my date with a girl I just meat, she`s a real tigress..." Roy knew that with "date" his brother probably meant a brutal fight that he provoked, but he knew better than to question it, "...and that's how you have fun during your spare time, instead of nerdifying yourself.", he saw that Roy was just looking at him timidly and nervously making his brother groan in annoyance, " I still can't believe that we're related." he said condescendingly before marching of to his room without giving his brother another look.

...

In no time Taylor was laying on his bed within his dimly lit bedroom, the dark always did make him feel more relaxed and at ease. Yet his mind kept drifting back to those Louds, in particular to that one girl " _I still don't get why Lynn is so protective of her siblings, siblings are the worst, how many times have I wished to be an only child and yet she was happy with having 9 siblings clogging up her space and wasn't even relieved when 4 of them were at least moved out of her life?"_

 _"And how does anyone stay sane living with so many freaks, a whimpy geek, a beaver faced bimbo, that emo runt, that...baby that somehow speaks perfect English?, and that...well the little blonde one has gutts and I do admire her taste in head wear, I guess she's okay to be around with...real shame that she was the one who crossed Lyle`s path..."_

His face darkened as he thought about his former friend, perhaps even friend was a strong word, they were more like partners, the toughest kids in the neighborhood united, and Lyle never did anything for him to begin with, outside of allowing him to join him in their bullying spree, or more precisely it was the other way around.

Taylor remembered how they first meat when his family moved in, Lyle tried to bully him and quickly got his ass creamed, after which Lyle claimed how impressed he was by Taylor`s toughness and asked him to hang out with him, or in hindsight sucking up to the new toughest kid on the block in order to remain on the top.

" _What a cowardly puss! How didn't I see this before, judging character has always been my strong suit? Bah whatever, it's probably for the better now, I`m better of without that idiot."_ , yet inspite of that Taylor still felt down, even though he really didn't loose anything, he still felt...empty on the inside. He then heard a distinct foot fall and turned his head slightly to see a pair of green eyes in the dark reflecting the moon light coming from the window. Taylor chuckled and looked back at the cealling "Ah so you finally showed up, I guess the suburbs of Michigan have far more vermin for you to snack on, you're just never content with being hand fed."

As his hand hung down from the bed he felt his cat stroking her body against it and purring, Taylor petted her on the head before she jumped on his bed, "Clever girl, you're the only sensible being in this house besides me." Taylor said as he kept starting at the dark cealling "Say do you have any idea why I'm feeling so down, I mean I didn't lose anything, I didn't get into trouble and I outwitted those snitches and cutting ties with that idiot was probably a good thing, so why am I not feeling better?" he looked back at his cat who was simply playing with the sleeve of his shirt.

Taylor looked back to the cealling and contemplated before it hit him "Of course, I`m bored, without Lyle I have no one to talk to, and with this new snitches in the neighborhood I can't have much fun without constantly looking over my shoulder.", the cat meowed, as if agreeing with him. "Ughhh at this point I`m starting to look foward to school." Taylor stated in a deadpan manner, before getting an an inquisitive look.

" _But then again I could still get Lynn to hang out with me, afterall we have so much in common and how long can she stay mad at me anyway?...So I beat up her brother, I didn't even give him a real beating, I just gave him like 3 punches in a span of 2 days, people can live with that and I can't be held accountable for anything Lyle did to her family._ "

He hated to admit it out loud, but he did feel an urge to learn more about her, maybe it was because she was the only person who gave him trouble during a fight, maybe it was something else, either way he found an odd fascination with that girl who had a laughable last time, yet deserved admiration for everything else about her.

" _Exact1y, girls are overemotional by nature, they feel one extreme at one moment then it fades away in couple of days. I just need to learn about the real Lynn Loud, how she thinks and what she likes and then I`ll be able to use my natural charisma to get her forgiveness. And until then heckling her a bit won't do any harm either, he he he oh this is going to be fun..."_

 **A little surprise teaser/sequal hook for possible future fics, showing that whatever lies for the Loud siblings in the future, Ryan Taylor will be involved in it in some capacity, especially for Lynn, as he failed to take the hint that she hates him more than cancer at the moment. And here we learn that his current home life is more or less the oposite of the Louds, nicer living conditions, but pretty strained relationships with his family, and he nonchalantly calls others freaks and weirdos even though he chats with his cat, maybe there's more to the bully than meats the eye...**


End file.
